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