Born Like This - DOOM

Track list:

1. Supervillain Intro
2. Gazzillion Ear
3. Ballskin
4. Yessir!
5. Absolutely
6. Rap Ambush
7. Lightworks
8. Batty Boyz
9. Angelz
10. Cellz
11. Still Dope
12. Microwave Mayo
13. More Rhymin'
14. That's That
15. Supervillainz
16. Bumpy's Message
17. Thank Yah

Running time: 40 minutes
Released: 2009

I have no inkling as to why I bought this. It's a complete left field inclusion. It may be that I stumbled over some other hip-hop around that time, found something I liked and looked for more of the same. Still, here it is, so listen I shall. 17 tracks in 40 minutes is quickfire stuff, so even if I don't get on with it (as I expect) it should fly by.

To be honest I have been putting this one off. I have had a few opportunities to listen but been turned away by what was up. Now, I feel guilty enough about my silent week to address it, and it will help cover up the god-awful noise from next door whilst I am at it.

The initial intro is utterly forgettable, then we get into it. I would never have put any "British" in the British-American tag (pilfered from Wikipedia, for what it's worth) on the basis of this track. The track is odd, Casio-tone in places, but I rather like the rhythm of the verse. I find myself enjoying it despite the concerns I had going in. Can't really comment on the lyrics as, like I have said before, I can't really follow someone else's words and write my own concurrently well enough. That said, I wasn't immediately presented with 101 troublesome elements, so call that a tick mark.

The next track slides by, unremarkable but similarly inoffensive, before Yessir! makes extensive use of the N word. Reclaimed or not, it stands out, and here there is plenty of language that makes me roll my eyes. It seems to lack the craft or charm of Gazzillion Ear too - no interest in the rhythm, the backing track means that the lyrics stand out more. That, or we're sensitive to the things we don't like and so it hit me here despite my typing.  There may be a little bit of an old and unwelcome idea in Absolutely, but the track is far more pleasant... however the overall tone seems to be sliding into a comic book evil. That is intentional, clearly. Functioning as intended. I don't much like the intent or the result though. I find the linking between tracks and the cutting between tones (like switching scene) to be a little abrupt, especially as each track is pretty short.

Content and concept aside, I rather like DOOM as an MC - insofar as his delivery is clear and there is a nice bassy tone to his voice. That said there is no excuse for the homophobic screed that is Batty Boyz; I feel dumber for having experienced it.

This contrast - between clear style and skill and incredibly questionable choice of subject and language - is something I really struggle with when it comes to hip hop. There are elements I really like, but almost inevitably they come along with problematic elements - misogyny, violence, homophobia, drugs in the content. It is impossible to escape, and impossible to stop them influencing the impression of tracks that don't exemplify those ideas. I find it much harder to separate art and artist when the problems are endemic within the form I guess. Yet a number of these tracks have had pretty decent composition, and I like the delivery for the most part. It is just the message that falls flat, but that flatness pollutes the entire output. That is particularly frustrating in a case like this where the elements are not as all pervasive as in some (and probably some I have to come).

I find myself without many words to share as the album winds down. My ears have not disliked much of it; there are bits and pieces here and there where the combination of music and words is not at all pleasant, but for the most part the construction of the album is very solid. However my mind won't let me enjoy any of it and I find myself not wanting to engage with it again, even those tracks that I thought were put together really well, with samples that sung in combination with the gruff vocals. Ah well.

Born in the U.K. - Badly Drawn Boy

Track list:

1. Swimming Pool
2. Born in the U.K.
3. Degrees of Separation
4. Welcome to the Overground
5. A Journey From A to B
6. Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind
7. Promises
8. The Way Things Used to Be
9. Without a Kiss
10. The Long Way Round / Swimming Pool
11. Walk You Home Tonight
12. The Time of Times
13. One Last Dance

Running time: 53 minutes
Released: 2006

As the image to the left suggests, I have the faux-passport edition of this album, an annoyingly sized package that does not fit nicely on my shelves, but does house a second disc (a DVD I've never looked at) and provide a physical object to make still owning the product more of a thing. I got into Badly Drawn Boy after Hour of the Bewilderbeast was Mercury nodded, although I think it may be more correct to say that I got into about 4 tracks, enough for me to have bought more since and not really listen to any of it much. I recognise a few track titles here fondly though, so I don't think it was necessarily that much of a misstep. 

We start with an intro, light piano and a spoken spiel that gives way to an odd little sung song about a swimming pool, for a back garden I guess. It feels longer than its 1 and a half minutes before it gives way to the title track, which interpolates Land of Hope and Glory to start with before becoming a fairly dull and repetitive guitar beat. The vocal is more interesting, and the rhythm of the lyrics is a joy, by far the most interesting thing in the song. I don't much like the final effect because I find the guitar overpowering, and the addition of chimes distracting.

I am finally getting around to another listen, almost 2 weeks after the last. Not quite the first of 2016, but near as damn it on the 14th. I have been a mixture of too busy and distracted by Fallout. Bolt on insufficient sleep, boundary issues and niggling little car tasks and the year hasn't started with me in the best frame of mind. I was all set to waste this evening, too, before a lucky last second goal in Rocket League picked me up, gave me the energy to cook a nice meal and tackle this listen. Degrees of Separation (I had to re-type that four times not to start spearing) is a much more accessible song, more of a melody, a bit of variation in the themes, but it has mostly passed as I bemoaned the beginning of this year. I seem to be sighting almighty alliteration a little tonight. Oh well, smile at the little things, eh? Welcome to the Overground keeps a peppier feel to it, drums and keys meshing nicely. It feels like a feelgood number, uplifting. It also feels... shallow somehow, like there isn't really that much to prop it up. I don't mind that though as it breezes by fast enough.

I get a strange Half Man Half Biscuit feel from the next track, I guess because the lead melody is weirdly whimsical because I lose it fairly quickly as the song progresses, and I find myself getting bored of the little piano loop and a flat-feeling ride. He tries to inject some life here and there, but I find it lacking in heart and, ultimately, in appeal. If that was a low point, we move on to a high. Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind is the track I remember from this album. It begins as a basic piano ballad, a slightly strained voice over a spare melody. We then get a change up, drums enter and the piano goes from sparse to more energetic. Just a bridge before a return to still fairly ballad-like mode... but its a sign of what is to come. We hit the chorus and there is a gentle, but noticeable impulse and energy to the singing and there is more passion and heart in the next stanza. It never really reaches a proper crescendo, teetering on the edge of bombast, held back, reserved, but hinting at a good idea, a solid heart... its just a very pleasant tune, despite never quite reaching the potential it hints at. I find it fascinating that a tune that disappoints me by not being all it can be nevertheless manages to be a real gem. That gentle energy a loving touch, enough for it to shine. That paragraph is a mess, but seriously - there is just enough promise in the song to help it stand out, even as it fails to deliver on everything it set out.

Gee am I tired. I started this feeling resigned but determined to get back on track. Half way through I am feeling washed out. Part of that might be the uniformity of these tracks. The timbre and tone is generally the same, Gough's voice is slightly one-note and musically the constructions seem to share more than they might. Its all very... wallpapery. Background sound, rather than engaging earworms. Nice rather than good. I think this last one is part of what makes Nothing's Gonna Change Your Mind stand out - its a genuine push towards a great tune, even if it just ends up good. It offers something more than a musical backdrop to some other activity. I am kicking myself, because I seem to have lost a sheet of paper where I had recorded birthdays of extended family. I may be good at some things, but I can't keep birthdays in mind at all, and January is lousy with them. Guess what I am doing this weekend?

These numbers in the heart of the album are longer and it feels it. Not massively so, but enough to notice. I have reached the lower key Without a Kiss. I rather like the chorus of this, where the piano actually shows some development, but the verses basically have a loop accompaniment and it is too obvious to enjoy. An attempt at pattern breaking also doesn't work, the odd jaunty rhythm - a heartbeat effect? - feeling at odds with the overall tone of the song as it becomes more evident. The whole song suffers for it, but it does have the bonus of making the opening of the next track seem pretty darn good. It is light and cheesy - almost muzak like in some senses, the brass has a cheesy, lounging edge to it - and more positive which is welcome. It is still wallpaper music but it is pitched at the right tone for me now. Slightly subdued, but definitely more happy than sad. Until the Swimming Pool reprise, at least. Could do without that.

My mind is definitely starting to wander; I am out of the habit of this and it is proving hard to keep focus. The radio-bland nature of the compositions here probably doesn't help that. The sounds are perfectly enjoyable, but they feel perfunctory and rote rather than played with passion to my ear - mostly because the repetition of the loops is just a little too front and centre. If those loops were slightly weaker and didn't stand out from the backing so clearly I might not have picked up on just how much the songs rely on them. There is nothing wrong with a little repetition, but here the variations are too soft, relegated to the background so, rather than support a tune that weaves around their framework, the repeated hooks become the tracks. The melodies that one would normally follow to break up the cycle are hidden, inaccessible. They are there if you lean in, look for them, but they go missing too easily behind the din.

I am more positive about the final track. Some bum notes here and there it seems, but the cadence of the vocal is back to its best. The drums are still a little too strong for my taste and... actually no. 3 minutes in the structure of this tune has got to me too. I think I have no patience tonight, and my ear seems to be latching onto the worst things in each track. Ugh - I don't like being this negative; I don't think it is wholly deserved. I think I need to give this album another chance, but I am not about to do a repeat listen, so I will settle on leaving the tracks in my library for the time being. Another mess at the start of 2016; they are stacking up.

Boots Met My Face - Admiral Fallow

Track list:

1. Dead Against Smoking
2. Squealing Pigs
3. Subbuteo
4. Delivered
5. These Barren Years
6. Old Balloons
7. Bomb Through The Town
8. Four Bulbs
9. Taste The Coast
10. Dead Leg
11. The Sad Clown Cast

Running time: 48 minutes
Released: 2010

I can't remember which festival I saw Admiral Fallow at, I suspect it might have been End of the Road. I was immediately struck by their set and their similarities in origin, demeanor and sound to King Creosote. This of course meant I had to buy up their album when I got home. So I did, and here we are. I don't listen to it much, but I occasionally use Subbuteo to kick off a shuffled playlist; it is the one song I can put any sound to now. I didn't really get on with the follow up album but I am hoping that this will be going back and enjoying a gem that I have overlooked too long.

A wistful clarinet starts us off with a sadness-tinged tune supported by one-note strumming. A strong Scottish accent adorns the voice of our vocalist when he enters the piece, along with drums. The track has built nicely - keys, drums and guitars replacing the woodwind carrying most of the tune. Its a slow, downbeat number, but not overwhelmingly so - there is hope in some of the brighter notes; hope in the context of sadness. I really like the effect, even though the melodies are just recycling by this point.

It is 10.30am on 1 January 2016. I suppose I should say Happy New Year. Replacing the lush sounds of Dead Against Smoking is a lone acoustic guitar rambling through a melody with vocal accompaniment. The pace is higher, emphasised when the drums join in. I am less taken with this tune; the central hook is fine and the execution is alright but it feels as though it is lacking something relative to what went before. A great screech and crescendo adds nothing. Hah, screech is in the lyrics; funny how we pick things up subconsciously - I only noticed after using the term myself. I am so glad when it ticks over to Subbuteo - this song has a real attraction to me. Light guitar hook, wistful air, soft vocal and a less than pretty picture painted by the lyrics - it feels heartfelt and personal, a portrait of a childhood. The structure, spread out single beats below the busy guitar and supported by a background quietly laid behind it all but managing to lift it up all the same, gives a really solid core. It builds suddenly into a crashing, cry for help of an outro; I thought there was a more impassioned plea in the vocal to go with that - maybe I missed it this time, but more likely I misremembered it.

We drop back to guitar and voice for Delivered. I don't think the group are as good when stripping out the depth of sound that we have had from woodwind, strings, keys and drums. This is noodly nothingness. There is, however a great musicality in the vocal... and of course as I type that he goes for notes that don't quite work, giving a jarring sound. Not a great track, but a brief one. The larger sound is back for These Barren Years. I am not taken with what lyrics I pick up here, but there is a nice rounded rumble to the progression of the tune up until the point they start repeating the chorus when I feel that it all falls apart. It isn't interesting enough to support heavy repetition.

The album seems to alternate between big sounds and smaller ones. Old Balloons is stripped back again, a rapid looping guitar hook and piano tune. It threatens to explode into a larger number at moments but has yet to quite manage it. Eventually the electric pickup arrives with drums and it is a relief - not that the opening was bad, but that the promise to expand was not an empty one. The keys become grander in scale with it, carrying the bulk of the tune, and the keys are all that is left once the crescendo has passed and the track begins to build again. I find myself enjoying the piece despite myself when it goes all mental for the last minute. A chorus played with extra intensity, pace and volume and repeated twice is the end of the vocal and the end of the track. The build felt like it deserved that end, rather than in some cases where the explosion of activity feels unmerited.

We have a female lead vocal on Bomb Through the Town, a floating voice over a backing that grows on me as she starts holding notes for longer. The harmony when the regular lead singer joins in is an odd one. It doesn't always work, but when it does it is really sublime. The thing is their disparate voices handle some notes very differently - strain against natural inclinations - but where they are both in range they offset each other nicely, not competing for space. The tune is actually dull as anything. A plodding drone, the only good thing to say is that I only really noticed how boring it is once the vocal was no longer present. I don't know about rediscovering a gem, but this listen is interesting - a bit more thought provoking for me than some recently. For instance, I find myself wondering to what extent ones surroundings influence the creations we make, with this album clearly identifiable as Scottish even without the accents.

Taste the Coast is pleasantly happier, pacier and catchier. Harmonies again in the chorus, a homecoming tale. There is a moment in the middle of the song where the busier elements of the backing drop out and we get a simple chorus with that harmony and it is a lovely little moment. The happy buzz disappears for the lead out. Vocals start repeating a line that had not appeared to date, pace drops, a subdued piano wandering comes in... it all works much better than it should in truth. The same cannot be said of the penultimate track, a 7 minute long oeuvre, the first half of which is disappointingly barren, not much music and a vocal that doesn't inspire. We get a bit more development past the half way mark but it is still staid and plodding. The development is limited, too - I kept expecting it to build further and do a little more to replace the vocal, which has vanished, but we just repeat the same phrase over and over. This one is for the scrap heap.

The bonus track on the end (I don't think it was on the original 2010 release; the album was re-issued in 2011) uses electronics that immediately make me think of Mogwai, specifically tracks from Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will - this album being produced by Paul Savage, who has a hand in producing that record, and many others I own. I miss the rest of the tune whilst confirming that, but while it is a low key ending, it is a far more fitting one that Dead Leg's disappointment.