Lady Sovereign : Jigsaw

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ladysovereignjigsaw.jpg" alt=" " />U.K. grime-rapper Lady Sovereign has a comeback, of sorts, and a change of attitude, of sorts, on her sophomore release, <em>Jigsaw</em>.<br />...
7.2 Midget
2009 

Lady Sovereign : JigsawWembley, London’s Lady Sovereign (Louise Amanda Harman) burst onto the U.K. grime-rap scene in 2005 with such singles as “Random” and “9 to 5”, with her rhymes and unique persona, including being the only white female grime artist, as well as not only eschewing using a feminine appearance to sell records, but even riffing on such aspects of today’s women.  Her signing to Jay Z’s Def Jam at the end of the year seemed to herald her finally reaching her outsized claims, but 2006’s debut LP Public Warning failed to turn as many heads as Def Jam/Island Records wanted, leading to her eventually being dropped in the midst of making her follow-up.  But Sovereign persevered, forming her own Midget imprint at EMI, and has put out Jigsaw.  While not as revelatory as her first initial singles, she does tone down the pride (somewhat), and even introduces actual singing and vulnerability, to make a mixed, but improved record.

Jigsaw starts off strong, though initial impressions are a little misleading.  Opener “Let’s Be Mates” is catchy but simple, dropping some of the tough as she embraces her weirdness without getting soft – but that attitude isn’t representative of the album.  Meanwhile, the following single “So Human” is great – but that’s mostly because it’s Sovereign’s ‘reinterpretation’ of The Cure’s classic “Close To Me”.  Supposedly pushed onto Sovereign by Island execs when they heard underground MC Thomas Jules use it, some in the underground community have accused Sovereign of theft (and supposedly The Cure frontman Robert Smith prefers the Jules version, but he would say that, wouldn’t he?…).  It’s hard to tell whether one enjoys the song because of what Lady Sovereign did or because of the underlying Cure song, but considering she left Island, making it her leadoff single was a little cheap.

And unnecessary, when Jigsaw has a better, more representative track right after  – and it’s the title track.  “Jigsaw” nicely puts together Sovereign’s rap and singing, a voice newly introduced on this record.  It also combines a great flow with her strong beats, and most of all, gives a window into Sovereign’s heart, past the public persona.  The best of Jigsaw is when Sovereign drops, or at least scales back, the Napoleon-like pint-sized pride and lets something else shine, like the catchy humor of “Let’s Be Mates” or “Food Play” (though the latter is a little one-note), darker turns in “Pennies” and “Guitar”, or emotion with “Jigsaw” and even “So Human” (albeit borrowed from the more-eyeliner-wearing Robert Smith in that case).

Largely, when Sovereign just tries to return to her disco-rap, it’s unremarkable, like on middle track “I Got You Dancing…”, the verse portions in the preceding “Bang Bang”, and especially with closer “I Got the Goods!!”, which unfortunately also sees the return of Sovereign’s highest opinion of herself.  There is one exception, in the catchy “Student Union”, as it riffs on said bars, but that’s more because of Sovereign’s humor and charm than her over-repeated references to how she’s not one of them (dropped out of high school, like she won’t let you forget).

Abandoning attempts to ape the attitudes and success of America’s hip-hop community has been good for Lady Sovereign (we only like our massive British egos in music critics…).  While Jigsaw is still a mixed record, she’s at least using the right ingredients.

MP3 Stream: "Jigsaw"

{audio}/mp3/files/Lady Sovereign – Jigsaw.mp3{/audio}

   

– Graham Goodwin
[email protected]

Categories
Album Reviews
  • Anonymous
    at
  • No Comment

    Leave a Reply

    Album of the Week