Ugly Duckling – Audacity

Smooth and creamy.

I’ve heard so many good things about this group, but have not heard them before, so I was fizzing with excitement as I pressed the play button, and as I proceeded through the album, I understand why they’ve had so much acclaim.

They’re a perfect media pleaser, they’re talented, slick, intelligent and generally unoffencive. They’re like the Outcasts but with clean clothes on.

Generally described as old school, they do present the very basic structures that were evident in the origins of hip-hop, but Ugly Duckling present a more polished version of old school hip-hop, learning from the mistakes of their forefathers and smoothing over all the cracks that were left as rap advanced. The main difference between this album and the music it emulates is that the originals were ground breaking, which is why there were all those cracks and Ugly Duckling have smoothed over those cracks and failed to create anything earth-shattering.

If you like your rap political, angry, menacing or exciting then this album is not for you. If you like your rap with clean edges, soft beats and a sine wave of scratching, then you will get a lot of pleasure from this album.

I personally really enjoy this album, but feel that it would take some work on my part to get this into my regular listening routine.

Listen to this album: On a boombox.

Rating: 71%

“I won’t let it die”

EPMD – We Mean Business

Simplistic old school.

Some people try and distance themselves from the origins or a genre. Others try and modify these origins for a new audience, developing their discipline to keep it original and continue to impress.
EPMD do neither and continue doing the same things that they, and all hip-hop artists have been doing since the 80s.

It’ s always nice to listen to something old school, but there’s plenty of things out there that will cater to those urges, note: the things that were produced in the 80s.

It’s not as though they’ve even tried to make anything even slightly original and even the guest artists, some of which have done some very interesting and original things in their time are sucked into this vortex and dumped back in the era, 1987-1992. It’s like an American hip-hop version of ‘Life on Mars’.

When you can predict 90% of the rhymes that they use before you hear them, there’s something wrong, especially when one of these is ‘element’ and ‘elephant’, it forces my head to make hard contact with the desk.

All in all, this album is a disappointment. Artists who are prestigious and have been at the forefront of their scenes, just failing to do anything worth writing about.

Listen to this album: While scrawling graffiti.

Rating: 54%

Madonna – Hard Candy

She should stop trying to be young and sexy…

Because she’s not and it’s quite embarrassing to see her trying to be cool and failing. It’s like when your mum tries to take an interest in pop music, or your dad trying to dance at a wedding. You just cringe and feel a huge amount of embarrassment for them.

Yes, she used to be shocking and abrasive, but we’ve seen it all now and there’s nothing left for her to do but shut up and go away.

She obviously does it because she enjoys it, and I respect that, I just find it hard to believe she actually thinks she does it well.

On this album, she’s just surrounded herself with rap artists and I do believe that the people who will buy this album, will do so, not for her, but for all the other people on the album. Does this make her the winner?

Everything on the album does have a degree of success, plenty of the songs are quite catching and I find myself bopping along to the music, but seeing where Madonna came from it just feels like such a fall from grace.

Listen to this album: While being a mutton dressed as lamb.

Rating: 67%

Extracts from ‘Miles Away’, ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Incredible’

‘4 Minutes’

Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold

Metaphor rap.

Atmosphere is in a place in the middle of many different criteria within art. He’s in a soap bubble of vocal skill, word play and poetic licence.

The thing is, I wouldn’t call it poetry, it’s still most definitely rapping, it’s just that it’s filled with poetic devices to help with the narrative contained in the song.

Slug, the rapper in Atmosphere, is one of the most intelligent wordsmiths in music today, some of the political messages are very well thought out and he will even give a balanced argument for and against the subject he’s talking about. I find this completely amazing and many people, not only music but in life too, could learn a lot from him.

This album is pretty much all about the rapping and the lyrics and the music behind it, is more a device for the words, rather than a musical entity within itself. Minimalist, light beats with slight hints of bassy flavour contrast the very technical, complex rhymes and messages within the words. Having very simple, unimposing music really helps you to listen to the words in the songs and really take in everything that’s said and gives you room to think about what’s been said and then form your own opinions about the topics contained within those very witty lyrics.

A lot of the songs are about society and how we as a people react to certain issues. Slug writes in a very personal way, and I find myself relating to him. This drags me further in to the album and causes me to really empathise with him. The song ‘Yesterday’ plays all the way through with the chorus:

“Yesterday, was that you
Looked just like you
Strange things my imagination might do
Take a breath reflect on what we’ve been through
Or am I just going crazy cause I miss you”

It’s only at the end you actually realise who it is that he thought he saw and why he felt it necessary to write about it. I’m not going to spoil it, just go and listen to it. It’s the song in the youtube video at the bottom.

This isn’t really an album that you want to listen to on a regular basis, as it’s not the most musically adept album, not even the most musical Atmosphere album, but it’s still very much worth a listen, especially when you feel a bit sad, so you can feel empowered by your sadness, due to the positive messages that derive from negative situations.

Listen to this album: when you feel a bit sad, so you can feel empowered by your sadness, due to the positive messages that derive from negative situations.

82%

Extracts from ‘Like the rest of us’, ‘Your Glass House’, ‘Wild Wild Horses’ and ‘In Her Music Box’

‘Yesterday’

The Roots – Rising Down

Woosh! Rap has landed.

The Roots, continue on their reign of terror on the rap scene as the band of brothers bring out their eighth studio album.

“According to their producer ?uestlove, Rising Down, “is an electric record, more synthy. The darks are darker and the lights are lighter. But all I know is making quality hip-hop stylistically.” Wiki

Using a “bunch of synths” the mission is complete and this album is really the sixpence in the Christmas cake. The album is fantastic and really is something that I’ve never heard done this well before. It has a really smooth sound. Make sure the bass is right up on this one as you’re about to vibrate your head right off your shoulders.

The different approach to the music has not caused a sacrifice in the skill of the rapping and is still second to none. Sometimes, you find that when all the concentration is on one part, you can be let down by a different part that may have been forgotten slightly. With this album, while the bass lines and synths are the main point of focus, the rest keeps up rather well.

The songs are mainly slow and heavy, like Andre the Giant, although you can get a tough frustrated by his lumbering, you can’t help but love him and go up and hug him around his waist.

Listen to this album: In a lowrider hammock.

Rating: 90%

Extracts from ‘Rising Down’, ‘Get Busy’, ‘75 Bars ‘ and ‘Lost Desire’

‘Birthday Girl’ (itunes bonus track/international bonus track)

Estelle – Shine

Simple, Effective, Chilled.

Most of this album has a very stripped down feel to it. I would consider it a good album to put on in the background, as a soundtrack to a summers day where you need to do a bit of cleaning and hang the washing out in the garden and need something to keep your spirits up while you do these menial jobs, this album is perfect.
This is a very relaxed album and I find myself very calm after listening to it. On my first listen, I found it rather tedious, but this time, I’m appreciating it a lot more. It’s calm, it’s mature and you can just sit in a comfy chair and let it take you over.

The songs which try to have some bite to them really fail. “So Much Out The Way” is a really horrible song, because her voice doesn’t fit the music and trying to force it, is not what you want to do with this music. The backing track is good, but not for her.
The title track also tries to be a bit more punchy and again falls flat on it’s face.The lyric reads, “While my lights on, Imma shine, Imma shine…” which sounds to me like she’s saying “I’m sh*te” which judging by this song, you are.
“No Substitute Please” is a kind of cover of George Michael’s “Faith” in the way that it takes the tune and a lot of the lyrics, with some of them changed. I don’t know if that would make it a cover.
“In the rain” has horrible speeded up chipmunk singing in it. Please kill this song.
This slow songs on this album are perfect examples of chillout hip-hop, the fast or crunchy songs on the album are perfect examples of substandard hip-hop

Listen to this album: August bank holiday, sitting in the garden in the sun with a glass of cool lager.

Rating: 72%

Extracts from “No Substitutions”, “More than Friends”, “So much out the way”, “In the rain”, and “Shine”

“American Boy”