Lady Sovereign - Jigsaw
Rating
RIYL
Lily AllenMs. Dynamite
Calvin Harris
Gwen Stefani
Release Date
04/07/2009
Label
Def JamTracklist
1. Let's Be Mates2. So Human
3. Jigsaw
4. Bang Bang
5. Got You Dancing
6. Pennies
7. Guitar
8. Student Union
9. Food Play
10. I Got the Goods
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It's such a shame that the only British hip-hop acts who ever make bank are the ones that put out pop crap. Compare the early, gnarly, underground grime of Lethal Bizzle, Dizzee Rascal, and Ms Dynamite to the pop fluff they're putting out now, and there's no better application of the term 'selling out' (a term I'm reluctant to brandish and seldom use). I can see their reasoning, though. Since England is such a small place, it's hard enough for even semi-popular bands to earn a living, nevermind underground hip-hop acts, so the prospect of trying to break into the charts is all too alluring.
Lady Sovereign (Louise Harman, to her Mum) is probably the worst offender that this country has ever produced. Take her breakthrough track “A Little Bit of Sssh” for example. Originally released back in 2003, it accumulated quite the buzz on the underground stations, but with the inclusion on her major label début in 2006, it found itself completely stripped of its grimey bombastic bass backbone, being replaced with a more slick and streamlined pop backing track. The rest of the tracks from there on out followed a similar route.
On her sophomore release, Jigsaw, not only has Sov had another musical makeover, but a physical one too. Transforming from a chipmunk-faced tomboyish chav to a polished pop tart, Sov has kept her trademarked childish raps, but now whines them over soulless chart electro.
I challenge you to even want to get past the opening track of “Let's Be Mates” as Lady Sovereign annoyingly 'raps' her gibberish over the sickeningly sterile production of pop junk and electro rave synths. Surely the only people I can see enjoying this sort of wordplay, “I like monkeys, I like monkeys, you like funk? I like it funky, I hate junkies, don't punch me, I'm feeling a little jump-ey,” are pre-pubescent girls at a sugar-fueled sleepover.
The album isn't a complete tragedy musically, and the sampling of The Cure's song in “So Human” is a decent recycling, but unappreciated British rapper Akala did it first and way better back in 2007, and he's yet to sell out, still remaining largely unnoticed because of this. The title track of Jigsaw is another sombre-ish song in a similar vein, seeming to borrow some more elements from The Cure with the inclusion of Gothic strings, and fortunately it does feature far better lyrical content with a heartbroken Sovereign musing, “My heart is like a jigsaw puzzle, pick it up and fix it for me,” but it's still nothing special.
Those two songs still can't save this album from being an overall tragedy. “I Got You Dancing” is a blatant MIA rip-off, which makes me cringe thinking back to the travesty that was Aceyalone's Lightening Strikes album, and falling further into annoyance on “Guitar” Sov proclaims, “If I could play guitar, I would, but I can't, so I just sing it.” Not only does she not play guitar, she really can't sing either.
I'm flummoxed to how anyone outside of the UK would even enjoy this, because if it wasn't for the horribly grating vocals, which are as painful as hearing a class full of school children learning to play recorders, the cultural references will completely fly over the head of anyone living outside the UK. If you want to see how electro and British hip-hop can be successfully amalgamated, go check out Akala's last release, Freedom Lasso, because there's absolutely nothing of substance to be found here. With Sov spewing puerile bubblegum pop raps over sickeningly polished electro beats, the only thing you're likely to take away from listening to this record is a major headache.
--Rich Taylor
Comments
Milwaukee, WI
Never understood the hype for this girl. I love me some grime, but this is the least grimey grime there it. Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Roll Deep go with that.