Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 19/09/05
Label: Atlantic

The problem with jokes is that they're only really funny the first time round. Nowhere is this truer than in music. The careers of those who snigger as they storm the charts are notoriously short. The Darkness will have to deliver something spectacular to reignite their cock-rock phenomenon and as for Electric Six, who's laughing now? To achieve true greatness in comedy-pop takes more than camp kitsch and a funny voice.

The exception that proves the rule, Goldie Lookin' Chain's second album is indeed a truly great work. Having previously established the comedic potential of transporting gangsta rap to the streets of Newport, Wales, they return to delve deeper into the lives and loves of the slack jawed youth of Great Britain. Far from a gag, it's a savage indictment of society and as true a picture of inner-city life as anything Mike Skinner would come up. And it's funny.

Like the "10 O'clock News", only with more colourful language, it's all ASBOs, drugs and binge-drinking. "Your Missus Is A Nutter" is a soft rock classic with laddettes in denim minis and white stilettos getting into fights and flashing their bits. The "Grange Hill" theme is given a hip hop makeover for "Charmschool", a guide to shagging anything that moves. Meanwhile, "Bad Boy Limp" digs out the old skool beats and advises that self-mutilation not only helps you walk like a pimp, but with the aid of Claims Direct, it can be profitable, remember, "no win no fee, it's gotta be true, it's on the TV".

It's not all glamour though. Life as Newport's finest B-Boy crew, especially the over indulgence in drugs, can have its downside. The cruising hobo groove of "HRT" contains a stark warning in its chorus: "Hormone replacement, that's what I need, I started to grow tits after smoking too much weed".

Amusing as GLC's searing social study is, it's not, however, the main attraction. Long after the nerdy voice of "Maggot At Midnight" has ceased to raise a chuckle, the lurching cartoon bounce will still be a stunning loop. And that's the key to GLC's appeal: in order to mock properly, they've had to be more capable than those they're mocking. So, remove the Welsh wise-cracks and "Sh*t Song"'s 50 Cent style dead-eyed synths and the Usher-like pastiche of "R'N'B", are quality tracks, spiked with an imagination and ingenuity sorely lacking in the 'real' urban music.

Post-modern, ironic and side splitting it may be, but the most ironic and side-splitting thing about it all is that "Safe As F*ck" is easily one of the hip hop albums of the year.

    by Dan Gennoe