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Music Reviews!
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Albums
P Diddy & The Bad Boy Family
The Saga Continues...(Arista)
New name, new album, same old story. The artist formerly known
as Puff Daddy, now claiming the snigger-inducing moniker of P Diddy,
returns with
his gaggle of sycophantic bad boys to tell us all about his love of
money, bitches and blunts and make sure we realise he's "down wid
da ghetto". Still, at least he seems to have got over his obsession
with bloated
rapper Notorious BIG. This time, it's Jennifer Lopez's turn to
be treated to a limp, insincere tribute a la Puffy in the tacky I Need
A Girl (To Bella).
P Diddy has a massively inflated view of his own talent, but the best
tracks here are the ones that he has the least to do with. The
dark and menacing Child Of The Ghetto, performed by G Dep and ostensibly untouched by
the hand of Puff shows more originality and passion than much of the
rest of the album. So Complete is a smooth, yearning r'n'b
groove given the kiss of life by the sassy Cheri Dennis and is the
high point of the whole soulless, testosterone-fuelled exercise.
There are no surprises - except perhaps Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now, a
lament on the torments of being immensely rich and famous. It's
surprising
that even a man with an ego as inflated as Diddy's believes this track
should be inflicted on the public.
P Diddy and his family "ain't going nowhere", as he takes
great pains to tell us on Bad Boy For Life. But it's only a
matter of time before the weight of his pseudo-gangsta ego crushes him
to messy pulp. And I'll be the one laughing manically when it
does.
Reviews by Miranda Schunke
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 Singles
Roots Manuva - Dreamy Days (Big Dada)
Taken from the fantastic second album Run Come Save Me, Dreamy Days is
one of Manuva's best and most chilled songs to date. What's
refreshing about this track is the idea of actually being pleasant to
folk and being an all round goodie. However, of course, there
are also the usual Roots drugs references and with lyrics like, 'Here
is my money, these are my drugs and this is my brain', this is a great
tune to have a smoke and a beer to.
The b-sides are disappointing, MJ Cole has produced a rather
lacklustre track which, considering Roots vocal style, could have been
much better, while the Super Furry Animals remix fares even worse.
Altogether the single is a great summer tune that unfortunately got
released in autumn.
Pulp - The Trees/Sunrise (Island)
The first release for two years from Sheffield's major export, fits
snugly into the insular indie void they left behind. The star
quality and somewhat
geek-to-god coolness that previously shoved Jarvis into the limelight,
continues to shine.
However, the truly handbag flaunting tunes that gained the majority
vote - the Common People and Disco 2000's - are a world away. For
this era, the music is timeless, less immediate but less irritatingly
repetitive.
First of the double A-side, Trees, is a sweeping musical arrangement
of strings and harmony. When the melodic hauntings of Sunrise
echoes and
converges into a climax of noise, certain things become obvious.
The old timers of pop are back to save the musically jaded.
Reviews by Miranda Schunke
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- 3 DAYS, A
Rocking Halloween!
- The
Fox and Goose is set for a real:-
- "Rock
Fest!"
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