I can’t remember how I found Stanley Odd on Soundcloud but I remember being a bit preachy about it for a month, like I’d discovered the cure for the cancer that is destroying music. Clever lyrics but clever because they ring true, not because they have long words and balanced phonetic structure. Simple tunes with bright clear production that have definite commercial appeal, but not because they’re aimed at seven year olds, but because they’re written from the heart. It seems like such a simple combination but its so rare now, especially in the world of hip-hop. Because for me that’s the most amazing thing about Stanley Odd, they’re a hip-hop band. That phrase makes me wince because I’ve had it waved in my face time and time again, and the perpetrators are usually nothing more than nostalgia vendors or overhyped kids entertainers. Honestly, apart from a few obscure acts who I love dearly, the last time I got excited about  hip-hop was probably Eminem. And look what the fuck happened to him. So why Stanley Odd ? Well how about these lines from “Antiheroics”:-

Alex Salmond said we all must dream, it’s no surprise that he’s prepared to swim upstream,

What do we all want ? Ask the big fish in a small pond, One sides Martin Luther is the other’s Pol Pot,

 Is it King Alex the enslaver or Alex the emancipator, Can I answer later ? Will the Tories hold hands with Labour ? Are we oil rich over subsidized pay are we rabble rousers of an organized threat.

I’m sorry, I digress what about us ordinary folk ? It’s a lot to digest at the border control,

Of course we’re all junkies and alchies with Victorian maladies, Kept on smack by Southern salaries,

Using rudimentary tools and making cave drawings, day spotting crack dens and Trainspotting,

Parasitic dancer is sponging off philanthropists, Is why the NHS needs Lansley to dismantle it.

I listened to this rapt from start to finish because it’s a proper tune that you can dance to but it actually has intellectual content. And that’s not it…it goes on and on, not just on this song but throughout the album. Spot on observation delivered in a dry but totally assured flow, lyrics that if he’s not careful will get him confused with a poet and great tune after great tune. The topics never fail to resonate either, whether it be an analogous conversation between Britannia and Caledonia (Marriage Counselling) or his spot on, scathing disparagement of the pathetic self-aggrandizing rubbish that most rappers spout as content (Killergram).

Stanley Odd are on tour this month and the album’s also out. If you have EVER liked hip-hop or rap, then I suggest you grab a copy of this. And don’t put it on then fucking jaw over it, not the first time anyway. Sit down and listen to it properly because this is a seriously great album and I hope that Odd make it because they absolutely deserve it.

http://stanleyodd.com/

Kim Monaghan

About Kim Monaghan

Kim is reviews editor here at Sitting Now, Overlord at http://daddytank.co.uk, and member of the shadowy League of Cat Fanciers: Birmingham division.

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