Artist: 50 Cent
Album: Before I Self Destruct
Rating: 
Before 50 Cent self destructs, he has bestowed upon us this unpretentious, sublime and spiritual collection of beautifully arranged and sumptuously lyrical odes to the tribulations of existence. One’s ear is simply delighted to engage with the delicate harps and flutes of ‘Bitch I’m Sorry’, whilst the poignant metaphors and moving epithets of ‘Good to be a Gangsta’ are the perfect accompaniment to an evening contemplating a Caravaggio over the finest caviar. Listening to Cent, one is reminded of the classics; Notorious BIG and Tupac (peace be upon Them) and escorted to a world of musical purity and carefree frivolity befitting the fall of a decade.
Artist: Blu Mar Ten
Album: Natural History
Rating: 
Blu Mar Ten’s third studio album arrives with all the pomp and fanfare you would expect of the UK’s most consistently brilliant underground producers: zero. Masters of Ambient, House and Drum and Bass, the trio never fails to offer interesting, cutting-edge music for the discerning of ear. Natural History, arguably their finest endeavour to date, is a forward-looking, brave and deeply musical adventure into Electro, House and Drum and Bass, fusing genres, sub-genres and birthing new genres in a wonderful melting-pot of eclectic styles with imaginative twists. Natural History is a truly pioneering work and the first that really feels 2010.
Artist: Snow Patrol
Album: Up to Now
Rating: 
This latest Snow Patrol release is bursting with irrelevance. A two-disc epic of B-sides, singles, remixes and dodgy cover versions, the epic endurance of which is akin to a month long interaction with an amoeba – in Starbucks. Snow Patrol’s chart-toppers are more than capable of filling a stadium with Lambrini-drowned teenagers and their post-Bros mums, but the B-sides lack even that charm and drone miserably without a purpose or a care. A saving grace of this wooly mammoth of malcontent is a cover version of ‘Crazy in Love’ which offers the listener a brief moment of hilarity, apart from that it’s pure swallow’s spittle.