Jeffrey Lewis: 12 Crass Songs : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When you come home from a bad day at work, drained by the endless sleaze-storm of the world, there's never been anything like putting on an old Crass record and hearing the anarchist U.K. punks scream their classic "Do They Owe Us a Living?" Until now. Because for some nutty reason, anti-folk songwriter and comic-book artist Jeffrey Lewis has taken a bunch of great Crass songs and given them fresh, funny new musical settings. His voice is full of mild-mannered wit as his acoustic guitar, toy piano, cello and accordion bring out the seething rage of "End Result" and "Securicor."

Weird? Very — it's like hearing Belle and Sebastian cover Public Enemy. But it's also downright inspiring to hear Lewis' choir of friends revive the campfire-ready chorus of "I Ain't Thick, It's Just a Trick" ("They can fuck off 'cause they ain't got me/And they can't buy my dignity/Oh, yeah"). And when Lewis changes the line about Farrah Fawcett to Sarah Jessica Parker, he reminds you why these songs still hit so hard — now all we need is for Ashley Tisdale to take a shot at "Sheep Farming in the Falklands."