Shades of Lennon jumped out at me the first time that I heard Pop Levi, and though I've never been a great fan of The Beatles and especially their legacy, there's no denying their leader had a certain magic.
And no, it's not just the Pop Levi beard that appears in certain press photos. He seems to have a time machine in which he travels to exotic corners of '70s rock and comes back with pristine nuggets to show to the world from inside his trench coat, like a mad adventurer. Pick-Me-Up is of this kind, a shimmering, insanely rhythmic shuffle of informed glam posturing and killer hooks performed with a certain relaxed demeanour that blows sheer love bubbles to the modern soul, getting one dancing and evoking the strangest images at the same time.
What if Lennon were to be born today in the deepest thriving underground? Maybe Paul McCartney would never have needed to happen. All sorts of aberrations could have been avoided. Historical hindsight would have been such a grand thing. Prince has been there and gone, Levi's there now, and touring the UK as I speak.