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UK Music arrow Reviews
Reviews written by Tom Ellen

 Assassin,  Monday, 26 November 2007

Overall rating
3.2
Originality
2.0
Lyrics
4.0
Memorability
4.0
Melody
3.0
Production Quality
3.0
With 'Gully Sit'n', Assassin has married polished, sparkling pop-dancehall beats with rough and ready, much-less-commercially-friendly lyrics and delivery, and it makes not only for a nice change of pace, but for an excellent set of songs too.


 Baby J,  Sunday, 29 June 2008

Overall rating
3.2
Originality
2.0
Lyrics
4.0
Memorability
3.0
Melody
3.0
Production Quality
4.0
Not Baby J's best work, but still a strong offering


 Bratz Soundtrack,  Sunday, 04 November 2007

Overall rating
1.6
Originality
1.0
Lyrics
1.0
Memorability
2.0
Melody
1.0
Production Quality
3.0
This is a review of the album soundtrack to the film, 'Bratz'. The film - according to the press release - is “a story that touches upon teenage life and friendship lost and found”. The album soundtrack - according to me - is “the sonic equivalent of having your head wrapped in candy floss and then thrashed repeatedly with a bike pump”.

We kick off with a track called 'Rock Star' by a group called Prima J. While the song masquerades as an electronic, pre-pubescent Grrrl Power anthem, the lyrics – upon closer examination – represent a neatly potted history of serious mental illness. The below is taken, line-by-line, from the first verse:

“So tell me what you think you're looking at?” (Paranoia)
“So I think I'm Queen Elizabeth” (Demented Schizophrenia)
“Now I'm stuck inside your memory” (Potentially Psychopathic Tendencies)
“That's why it's so hard to get rid of me” (Social Anxiety Disorder/Manic Depression)
“I'm incredible, so unforgettable, so no-one can take my place” (Delusions of Grandeur)
“I'm unbreakable, highly flammable, so, girl, get out my face” (Explosive Temper)
“It ain't my fault the boys are following” (Nymphomania)
“Cos I make walking look like modelling” (General Stupidity)

Track 2 features Daechelle – a gap-toothed micro-bint of questionable ethnic background – claiming that she “never want(s) to be predictable” over a slice of soulless RnB so generic it sounds like it was produced by a computer full of Love Hearts.

Track 3 is called 'Love Is Wicked'. That's all that needs to be said about track 3.

Track 6 sees the album's first male appearance in the form a band called NLT. I use the word 'male' in the loosest possible sense, of course, since it is quite clear that no member of NLT was actually born with a penis. 'Heartburn' – the semen-drenched robo-ballad they vomit forth here – has all the soul of an Egg McMuffin, and makes Daniel Bedingfield sound like Tom Waits.

Hip Hop's resident Judas Iscariots, The Black Eyed Peas, make a brief and wholly unwelcome cameo with 'Express Yourself'; a song that sees them carving out what little dignity they had left and leaving it to suffocate under a flapping heap of diseased herring.

Aside from being the musical equivalent of the stinging headache you get when you drink a Slush Puppy too fast, the Bratz Soundtrack is genuinely the most horrifically self-assured album I have ever heard. Every track is simply bursting with ill-founded arrogance; from Prima J's chest-thrusting and head-swelling above, to Chelsea Straub's diabolical 'It's All About Me', via Daechelle's ambiguous claim that she was 'born to do this' (a statement that is only becomes palatable if we take 'this' to mean 'endure phenomenal physical suffering').

To summarise then, please – PLEASE – do not buy the Bratz Motion Picture Soundtrack. Thanks.

Rating: 0/5
Label: Geffen
Words: Tom Ellen


 Def Jam Classics,  Saturday, 14 July 2007

Overall rating
3.8
Originality
4.0
Lyrics
4.0
Memorability
4.0
Melody
3.0
Production Quality
4.0
The very idea of reviewing an album full of 'classics' seems slightly redundant, really. Surely, no matter how bad a genre is, it's bound to have produced ten or eleven decent to mediocre tracks, and thus a collection of its 'classic' songs will always be pretty good. Please note that this theory does not apply to reggaeton. Reggaeton is rubbish. Anyway, this compilation – a chronological trek through the archives of arguably the most influential hip hop imprint of them all: Def Jam – is, as would be expected, pretty bloody good. Excellent early Beastie Boys offerings (including their second ever release – 'Rock Hard') and some Old Skool quality from 3rd Bass and good old Ladies Love Cool James start the proceedings off nicely, while the neck-breaking 'Drum Machine' by MCA & Burzootie and Prodigy's remix of Method Man's 'Release Yo' Delf' are just two of the highlights from further down the tracklist. Truly a 'classic' album: go get it.

Rating: 4/5
Label: Universal/Def Jam
Words: Tom Ellen


 El-P,  Monday, 09 July 2007

Overall rating
3.2
Originality
4.0
Lyrics
3.0
Memorability
3.0
Melody
2.0
Production Quality
4.0
I don't know why, but I've never really got into Def Jux stuff. It's always seemed like the sort of thing you have to pretend you really like when you're around 'real' hip hop heads, but back at home you'd rather just stick on Big L or Snoop. Or Toploader. Whatever. Anyway, having said that, this is not about assessing my personal opinion on El-P, it's about assessing whether 'The Overly Dramatic Truth/Smithereens' is a good record. And it is. Quite good. The Opener, 'The Overly Dramatic Truth', is an emotive, stadium-rap heart-thumper that finds El-P in 'profound/introspective' mode. However, the better tracks are the Cassettes Won't Listen remix of 'Flyentology' and the Anchorman-sampling, 'Smithereens'. The former is a beautifully bass-driven effort that touches on similar stadium rock/rap ground to 'The Overly...', and the latter, a perfectly untidy piece of chaos hip hop. Nice work from El-P. Now, I'm off to listen to 'Dancing In The Moonlight'.

Rating: 3/5
Label: Def Jux
Words: Tom Ellen


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