This album has a strange talent of talking to your brain directly. It does so in sometimes a very funny way and sometimes a very sad and depressing way and it’s this contrast that causes the greatest impact to occur.
Scroobius Pip sounds like some guy down the pub chatting about stuff that just happens to fit to the music that’s playing in the background. The fact that he’s talking to you on a personal level makes the messages he’s trying to convey, seem so much more appropriate.
Some songs take a really weird take on a common theme and turns it around to make it funny and provoking. One of the main ones that does this is ‘Tommy C’ that starts with an intro that they’re about to partake in a song about beauty and the definition of the word and then proceed to talk about the life of Tommy Cooper. This is a very moving song and by the end I’m lying on the floor wailing like a little girl.
There’s a great division between the songs about life and the songs about music. The song ‘Fixed’ is all about the current state of British hip hop and about how he thinks turned into a medium of lows common denominators and the effect this is having on the art form.
The whole album is very well written, and the music is really good as well.
Listen to this album: While combating stupidity in art.
Rating: 89%
Extracts from ‘Development’, ‘Tommy C’, ‘Fixed’ and ‘Waiting for the beat to kick in’
I have been listening to this album constantly since I got it and it has taken preference in my listening time than any of the other albums that came out this last week, yet it is one of the last I am reviewing.
“WHY?” I hear you cry. Well, it’s because I can’t think of anything that can equal the brilliance of this album.
Having listened to the mix track made available on their website, I felt a touch disappointed with what the album might have been, it seemed a touch weak and like it had more bits that were softer than bits that were thumping Drum and Bass.
Once I listened to the album in full, it just blew my mind. Pendulum have managed to just about match ‘Hold your colour’, but not better it, although you couldn’t actually expect them to better what I consider to be one of the best albums ever created.
Yes, it is a touch softer than some of their work, and while this didn’t work in the short mix track, when it’s spread over the whole album, it seems so much more balanced. The weight on each end of the scale is almost perfectly matched and it sits there. The only thing wrong with this album is that sometimes the softer bits go on a little to long before it really kicks in, but this is just me splitting hairs over it really.
You can’t listen to this album quietly, you need it loud, with the bass high to get everything out of this album. My PC speakers didn’t do it justice, but when I put it on loud on big speakers, it really did take the album to a whole new, fantastic level.
In Silico ticks all the boxes. It is simply amazing.
There really aren’t any words that can tell you how amazing the album is. Just get it and listen for yourself.
Listen to this album: With the bass turned to 11.
Rating: 96%
Extracts from ‘Showdown’, ‘Midnight Runner’ and ‘Granite’
This is a dance version of calligraphy. It’s swirly and curly and appealing at first glance, but when you try to read it, you can’t really see what the content is. The album is a rather pleasant sounding experience, for the most part and I very much enjoyed it while I was listening to it, but once the album had finished, I felt rather empty inside, like there wasn’t any point to what I’d just heard. There isn’t any conviction to the music. Dance music is supposed to capture you and whisk you away, but this album doesn’t do that.
I was personally rather indifferent to Moby until I saw him on Never Mind the Buzzcocks and thought he was hilarious. This caused me to take rather a liking to the man, but I still stayed indifferent to his music.
This album is like the weak kid at school who keeps trying to be everyone’s friend, but nobody wants anything to do with him, even though he is generally pleasant, he’s not friend material and it’s the same with this album, the songs are nice but they don’t really make me want to buy the album.
The best songs on the album take a step in the right direction and make me wish the rest of the album had the same determination as these songs.
There’s only one outstandingly bad song on the album, and that is ‘Everyday it’s 1989′ which is just too much for me to handle, it has some wailing woman all the way through and I just want her to just SHUT UP!
The best songs on the album are ‘257.zero’, ‘Alice’ and ‘The Stars’ which all combine decent beats, cool funky sounds and some great use of words.
Having read the 3 step guide to singing modern indie, Santogold realises she read the copy for men.
This is quite a confusing album because she sets out to break in to a genre very much dominated by white people and fails very badly with it, although when it comes to the songs which are more reggae and hip hop influenced, they are very good. Even though she says she “has made a point of not performing R&B or rap like other “brown girls”,saying she is “not like Ciara.” Wiki
These are some of the best songs on the album, and it also sounds a bit pretentious, why can’t she just do it and not mention race?
The indie based songs are bad, it sounds forced and not very good. It’s like the male singer of some naff indie band has had his balls chopped off. Every song that isn’t grouped into this genre is exceptionally good.
‘Shove it’ which has some reggae sounding influences is very enjoyable, ‘Creator’ which is very hip hop had me dancing in my seat and ‘My Superman’ which sounds more like something Goldfrapp would produce is lovely.
Overall, this album is good once you cut out the indie bits, all the other stuff is really very good. Some interesting influences are brought in to play in the album and more than a couple of times i was jigging away to her tunes.
While trying to pic some samples to put below here, I found myself wanting to put most of the songs on, so that goes to show that there must be a good few worthy of putting up., I was just very put off by the indie.
Listen to this album: Covering your ears when she tries to do indie.
Rating: 80%
Extracts from ‘Shove It’, ‘Say Aha’, ‘Creator’ and ‘My Superman’
