Dizzee Rascal - Tongue n' Cheek, Review

It's been an interesting year for Dizzee Rascal. Prior to his first #1 with Calvin Harris and Chrome, he was still considered by many to another grime act who will refuse to stop making music. Then he discovered how to make a pop song. Hence Tongue n' Cheek. There are times on the album where I hope that's all this is for Dylan Mills, a temporary spin into the mainstream just to show how easy it can be for someone so talented. Even one of the b-sides of this album, the electro-grime Live Large n' in Charge still displays his ability to pen original, innovative grime.

But that's exactly what this isn't. First singles Bonkers, Dance Wiv Me and Holiday stand out on early listens. Road Rage is a slightly more in tone with his roots effort. Sometimes you struggle to decipher what exactly Dizzee is trying to say on this album, whereas Boy in da Corner is an album that refuses to die and is certainly considered the definitive grime album, you can see this LP not lasting the distance and it most certainly has lost him a lot of people who would have considered themselves 'loyal' fans - and he has replaced them with chart fans, who will like anything which they find easy to listen to.

Despite this, this pop effort is still a lot better than what 'serious' pop artists will put out this year. His ability for finding clever rhymes still prevails and saves some of less tasteful numbers, such as Freaky Freaky. And the Tiesto produced Bad Behaviour is an impressive album closer. But that is the problem with this album, it could easily be considered a collection of possible singles, there's little direction, little reason to justify why a song like Freaky Freaky made the cut and Live Large n' in Charge didn't other than its potential acceptability to chart audiences.

It's easy to call this album Dizzee's "sell out" album, but most of his fans will certainly find this a enjoyable, laid back listen. Powerful numbers from his old days such as Stop Dat, Paranoid and Hype Talk are replaced for chilled out offerings such as Chillin' Wiv Da Man Dem and Dirtee Cash and it's fair to argue that he's simply expanding his musical horizons with a bit of experimentation, it just so happens that his experiment seems to be reaching out to the pop world, rather than usual route of the other way about. Listenable, but not memorable.

RATING: 6.9/10

"Land belongs to the Jews,"

Again today whilst reading The Guardian, I came across an article that reeks of the same sort of self-righteous, ill-founded and immoral tripe that yesterday's creationist article stank of.
Major Adrian Agassi, who is an Israeli army judge and military judge is a man who only emigrated to Israel(or the "State of Jews" as he prefers it to be called, which he feels would have avoided confusion) from England after he had been born, bred and educated there. Yet he still feels that there is weight in his sentiment that Jews have God-given, Bible certified right to lay claim to Israel and increasing the amounts of 'settlements in the West Bank' - which is effectively stealing Palestinian land and leaving thousands homeless. In his opinion, the land is Jewish inherently, but peace is not even an aim that can be considered, calling the idea, "against nature," seeing as Jewish-Arab conflict dates back to Biblical times. A little argumentum ad antiquitatem in true religious fashion. Indeed he doesn't even try to deny that this is a war based on so called pages of 'holy scripture', "Is this not a religious war?"
What can we take from this though? This Englishman, from London, comes from a family of Rabbis from Baghdad. Is it unfair to assume that his family would coax his mental development of opinions to think in way he displays? This idea of the 'promised land' is leading to increased conflict, death and religious hatred. No signs of it shoring up are evident from the observable tide.

The Maccabees - Wall of Arms, Review.

I have been wanting to review this album from the first time I listened to it. The Maccabees have taken the gauntlet of being just another 'indie' band(even though there is no such thing as an 'indie' genre, two bands can be 'indie' whilst having completely different styles) and ripped through this preconditioned label. There is no doubting Markus Dravs(producer) played a vital role in this, developing on Colour It In's youthful, carefree sound and making it bigger, larger, grander, whatever you want to call it.
Wall of Arms is a seamless album, no track sounds out of place and no lyric is not well written. Just as Dravs input has given The Maccabees increased street cred, and has widened their compositional abilities, Orlando Weeks' development as a lyricist runs parallel to this. What was "Latchmere's, got a wave machine," in Colour It In becomes, "Your carbon makes a star/ Your carbon makes a star/ And after all that's all we are." in Wall of Arms. While their theme was carefree and relationship based in their debut, epitomised by what is still probably their biggest hit, Toothpaste Kisses, Weeks delved lightly into serious themes, singing in All in Your Rows, "So here's your church, and here's your steeple/ And you're locking your doors to keep in all the people." - But in Wall of Arms he goes all out, "Through these eyes/ There's no god above me/ No devil below me, no purgatory, no pearly gates/ The worms are what await me." The maturing of lyrics has also been matched with the development of the actual musicianship, big sounds with horns, spacey guitar riffs and intricate progressive drum beats as well as stints of acapella break songs up and build songs up with a skill that wasn't apparent on their first effort.
While what makes this album such an achievement is the sheer amount by which they have improved, they have raised expectations greatly and to follow this up with a third album of 11 similar songs would be a major disappointment. They have set the bar very high, hopefully they have some more tricks up their sleeves for whenever #3 comes about. One of the best albums, if not the best album, of 2009.

RATING: 9.6/10

Mr Hudson - Straight No Chaser, Review.

In Kanye West's 808's and Heartbreaks at the climax of 2008, he offered us what I believe to be his best work. The album's style an experiment in itself, and the subject matters more in line with what Mr Hudson and his highly talented Library played to on their first album, he(Kanye) developed what he believed to be a 'new genre' of music, and he deemed it 'Pop Art'. Mr Hudson's album is highly influenced by his time with Kanye, whether or not this has to do with Hudson's musical style actually changing, or whether or not it outlines his versatility in being able to write for both American and British audiences is debatable. I would lean towards the latter and I find myself quite impressed with this offering.

The first(notable) single, Supernova, opens up the album with a powerful, chaotic chorus and lyrics. What's interesting here is Hudson's new found liking to the use of the Auto-tune device, whether this is a move to keep Kanye happy I'm not sure, because Mr Hudson's voice certainly does not need this assistance, a fact you would know if you ever had the pleasure of listening to the first album he was involved with, A Tale of Two Cities. He uses the device for the most part of the album, and whilst sometimes you find yourself feigning enjoyment because of his singing talent without it, other times you would rather he discarded it.

Mr Hudson's ability for penning noticeably English lyrics is charming, "Anyone but him/ I'd rather hear you had the whole football team...With schoolboy fists we can take this outside/ But knowing my luck that fuck would win." - And it gives the album a character that Kanye almost sucks out of the album with his horribly out of place verse on the quoted song above, Anyone but Him. Having said that, that would be the only thing Kanye does wrong in this record, his influence cannot be avoided on every song, highlight moments of Knew We Were Trouble, Straight No Chaser, Central Park(which could easily be a Mr Hudson & the Library track, Joy Joseph's input is beautifully done) and Everything is Broken combine the two artists' differences and similarities to a point of alternative-folkish-quasi-hip-hop-electro which is original enough to separate itself from 808s and close enough to gain it comparisons which should garner more listeners.

Whether or not this album will do the job of endearing American audiences to his English accent, which seems to be his unique selling point to many, is hard to say. His intelligent wordplay and consistently clean production make this an extremely enjoyable listen if you can live with the auto-tune's omnipresence(for the most part). If he is just, "Another imposter on a major label roster," then it's fair to say he's as good an actor as we're going to get this year. An honest and thoroughly well done album.

RATING: 8.2/10

"54% back the teaching of creationism."

The headline is taken from an article from today's issue of The Guardian written by Jessica Shepherd. It outlined a few harrowing but unsurprising facts(unsurprising that is, if you have been following headlines like this). The poll was taken from 10 countries and it encompassed just under 12,000 people(it was an Ipsos Mori survey). 973 were Britons and around 54% agreed with the statement, "Evolutionary theories should be taught in science lessons in schools together with other possible perspectives, such as intelligent design and creationism." Note that this figure is higher than the US figure, where 991 were surveyed and 51% agreed with the statement.
What is to be taken from this though? Is this an expected figure considering that the vast majority of the populous would still identify themselves with a particular faith should they be questioned on it, and a response leaning towards intelligent designed(ID) is to be expected?
It is becoming increasingly less embarrassing to submit openly that you are a history denier(Richard Dawkins' coined term for those who submit that they do not 'believe' in evolution). A peek at Dawkins' new book "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" gives us a wealth of evidence on why it should be embarrassing to claim to the contrary. As far as things becoming 'facts' in science go, evolution is as close to the line as something is likely to get.
I myself was debating with a fellow pupil from my school just last week along a similar tangent. I was referred to as an 'evolutionist' simply by citing that it is foolish to consider creationism a theory at all without opening up the entirity of The Bible to scientific scruntiny, including evidentially bogus events such as Noah's Ark, slavery of Jews in Egypt, and all 'miracles'. Creationism claims that the entire Universe came into existence after the domestication of the dog, and that we are all inbred(I've always been interested in the idea, that if human existence began with one man and one woman, where did the point arrive where skin colour started differing, I've never heard what the creationist approach is on this issue).

Regardless of what your 'opinion' is on the matter, it is still a wholly worrying statistic. Save the bogus religious theory for the church. Scientists, intellectuals and activists are not complaining that 'equal time' is not given to evolution in Sunday mass. Knowing how one sided I appear on the matter, I invite criticism of whatever facts I pointed out, and whatever ones I seemed to have omitted. Also, the picture has little relevance to the topic, but it is hilarious.

First

Ehh yeah this would be my first blog. I fully expect 0 readers, followers, subscribers etc simply because I have no real ambition to make that number grow. Planning on using this mainly to channel my own thoughts so I can refer to it myself, with articles on music, culture, current affairs, literature and religion, or whatever I can think of, and if someone reads something here and gets something out of it, that's always a bonus.