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Are we ready for another round of the Stereo MCs? This is their fourth album in sixteen years, and it seems some sections of the record buying public are still yet to come to terms to the gap between albums one and two.
Since the last deeply felt, more song-driven opus Paradise, an overlooked sleeper, Rob Birch and Nick Hallam have been hanging out with Digitalism, and that - coupled with a renewed interest in the music of the summer of 1988 and its aftermath - ought to create a suitably big niche for them once again. Hell, there's even a 12" 90s album called Connected, just released to remind us of their influential powers.
In that time, Birch's voice and lyrical approach haven't changed too much. The "yippee-i-ay" of Get On It harks straight back to the Hacienda, as if nothing had happened in the intervening years, but it doesn't really have the melody or lyrical nouse to back up previous hits - a little Dis-Connected, if you please.
The conviction arrives with the forward drive of the bass on Here And Now, bouncing off the cub walls. Birch sounds hungry for action, and the beats are tight and lithe. Cath Coffey and Rachel Birch are an important presence, adding a streetwise backing vocal to the excellent metropolitan portrait of City Lights, delivered with a loping gait.
Show Your Light, too, steps forward with conviction, with an emotive string breakdown and the merest touch of gospel flavouring the chorus. All are examples of the Stereo MCs hitting form, finding lyrical fluency and achieving a vivid blend of colour.
This is certainly the case in Gringo, with Turkish-sounding strings in tow, but this finds Birch proclaiming "I'm ragged and I'm ruthless". This isn't the only lyrical couplet from the vocalist that fails to fully convince, and when the backing vocalists aren't in tow the sound is one-dimensional. Pictures is intriguing in its confessional tone, hinting at past misdeeds but not opening up any further. Meanwhile the chorus of Revolution sounds empty - intentionally so, it turns out.
As their sound comes into focus again, and their inflence is found to be more powerful than we first thought, there are mixed feelings on this latest Stereo MCs offering. When they get it right, and lose the vocal cliches, they still have plenty to offer - and the energy and drive in most of this record indicates they are far from a spent force.
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