Slice of Life – Love and a Lamp-Post

Album Review by Will Fitzpatrick | 05 Nov 2014
Album title: Love and a Lamp-Post
Artist: Slice of Life
Label: Overground Records
Release date: 17 Nov

A change of pace from the turbulent mind of Steve Ignorant. 2011 saw him resurrecting Crass material under the moniker The Last Supper, which largely served to draw a line under his former outfit’s anarcho-punk legacy. It also provided the jumping-off point for new project Slice of Life, and as such, pals were gathered to display the veteran’s softer side.

Ignorant claims that Love and a Lamp-Post is an attempt to channel the atmosphere evoked by Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, and the spoken-word rumination of You and the Home Coming certainly echo that novel’s mournful sentiments: moral decay amid the homely shabbiness of English towns. Unfortunately, the majority of the album feels tastefully bland; piano and acoustic guitars backing uncomplicated sing-songs like Killing Time, which fails to ignite despite the righteous heart burning among the lyrical embers. A well-intentioned deviation, then, but crucially not a particularly diverting one. [Will Fitzpatrick]

http://steveignorant.co.uk