ALBUM REVIEW: Lyrics Born
- Posted on May 19, 2008 10:44 AM
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Everywhere at Once
Review by Andy Hirst
Everywhere at Once is a somewhat strange third solo album from Quannum founding member Lyrics Born; whilst his laid back smooth vocal style remains unashamedly so, the overall sound is a marked change from the albums produced in his old set up with DJ D-Sharp. Replacing the traditional sample/ DJ hip hop format in favor of a live band, this album shows a funkier, more groove orientated vision of contemporary hip hop.
The change in style works beautifully in many places, crisply produced shimmering pop-funk is exemplified perfectly by tracks such as the opener Don’t change and I Like it I love It, with their laid-back party atmosphere and the live instrumentation with its deliberate looseness compliments the smooth vocal style, especially on Hot 2 Deff where he shares lyrical duties with the chronically relaxed Tuna fish.
If Lyrics Born aimed to produce a present day ode to late 80s hip hop and live funk music he would certainly have been heading in the right direction with this album and doing a very good job of it too, however as the omnipresent title of the album may suggest, he does not seem content being limited to one genre at a time and accordingly the album occasionally feels as if it is sprawling out over too many styles, focusing on anything from pop to soul, even incorporating elements of rock on some tracks. As such it is hard to term this a hip-hop album, baring, as it does, more similarities to albums released recently by eclectic super producers such as Gnarls Barkley and Mark Ronson. Admittedly the funk feel is present at most times even if it occasionally takes a back seat to other musical whims. Towards the end of the album a few weak patches can certainly be detected, however this should not detract entirely from the fun party feel so consistently achieved throughout this album, as he says himself “it’s not too serious”
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