Pop Levi - Never Never Love

by Eddie Robson

Hard to ever love

"Pop Levi’s willingness to embrace the artificiality of pop is, perversely, more honest than proclaiming authenticity. But listening to a whole Pop Levi album is still rather like eating three big bags of marshmallows in lieu of a meal."

At the start of last year Pop Levi was present on several tips-for-the-top lists, yet at the end of the year he made very few best-of-the-year lists. This is a fate which befalls dozens of artists each year, of course, because predicting pop success generally has a failure rate of at least 50%. But what’s worthy of note is how Mr Levi has responded to the situation, by making another album quick-smartish and putting it out just 18 months after his debut.

He’s more or less stuck with his original vision too: electro-glam-pop with myriad influences. So maximum points for integrity, but it seems likely that ‘Never Never Love’ will encounter basically the same reaction that his debut, ‘The Return to Form Black Magick Party’, did. Every track on here is well done. Taken individually they are all good and some of them are even great. They are also quite diverse – ‘Wannamama’ is a pure stomper, but the title track is a Missy Elliot-esque clatter of beats, ‘Semi-Babe’ is a retro-electro ballad, ‘Everything & Finally’ luxuriates in late-80s synth-soul… and so on.

Yet there’s still something wearing about listening to it for a full 45 minutes. We’re certainly not about to make any claims for the importance of authenticity in pop, and Pop Levi’s willingness to embrace the artificiality of pop is, perversely, more honest than proclaiming authenticity. But listening to a whole Pop Levi album is still rather like eating three big bags of marshmallows in lieu of a meal: after a while, you do crave something with more substance. Not in the sense of luddite bollocks notions of a ‘proper’ song played on guitars and/or pianos with emotive lyrics, but something that moves you a bit more. He is capable of this: see ‘From The Day That You Were Born’ off the first album.

It might be that the substance is in there somewhere, but Pop Levi coats his tracks in such shiny, irresistible style that the substance gets lost. Ultimately at the end of this album you feel a lack of connection with him or his world. Perhaps he needs to offer some moments of (apparent) intimacy to draw his audience in.

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