Rudeboy, I'm the certiest

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

26/02/21 : Conflict Of Interest - Ghetts



I can't say I'm familiar with Ghetts' work, but I was intrigued to listen to this because it was one of the few albums that appeared on a lot of "best of 2021" lists without making it on to The Guardian list, so I haven't been made to listen to it yet (and yes, I could have just listened to the damn thing - but I think we know it doesn't work that way, don't we?).

And yeah, it's an impressive piece of work - it reminds me of Dave or J Hus, but a bit more stripped back.  I suspect I only understood 10% of what I heard - if I'd paid attention I feel I might have upped that to at least 20%, but it's not really speaking to me about my lifestyle (and let's face it that would not make for an entertaining album).  But it flows along nicely with some impressive vocal work - very fast at times, but still expressive and it all sounds great over headphones.  All in all, a pleasant surprise - one I admit I'm unlikely to revisit, but you never know.  And I'm very surprised it didn't make The Guardian's best 50 albums of 2021 - it's exactly the sort of thing they'd pick to show they're down with the ghetto (and yes, I know this phrase is offensive for some but my suspicion is they're more offended with The Guardian's efforts to appear such).

We're at #2 in the chart this week - a new entry which only managed to hang around for another two weeks before disappearing.  The only other entry in the top ten was Mogwai at #1 - which I've already met on The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2021 and it only managed one more week before dropping out of view.

Wikipedia has remarkably little on the album - there are a load of guest artists involved, the critics liked it and it got to #2 here (and nowhere anywhere else).  And that's it.  "Customers also listened to" Giggs, Dave, Skepta and Keno - it appears that one word names are popular in this sector.  I was glad I got a chance to listen to this though - it's well worth checking out if you're in any way into that sort of thing.

19/02/21 - One I liked exactly as much as expected
05/03/21 - Surprisingly enjoyable

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