It's All About The Stragglers - Artful Dodger > Reviews > The height of garage

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it rate alongside the competition	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Great range of tracks, lots of up - beat and positive tracks, lots of single releases
Disadvantages:	The bonus track is number 99 and it means lots of fast - forwarding if you want to listen to it, will be too same - y for some people

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Garage has been big over the past 12 months, and proves to be getting more popular all the time. This album is a godsend for garage lovers, it contains everything people look for in a garage album. The songs all have a lot of variety between each other, and do not simply consist of a low syncopated bass with an annoying repeated melody line which comes around every bar or two. It also features a lot of tracks that are familiar as they have all been released and it's nice to have them all on one album.

Another thing that is noticeable after a couple of play-throughs of this album is that there are no bad tracks on the album. There are a couple that could be considered as 'fillers' but none that are annoyingly mediocre in their style. Also, there are no interlude tracks that you often find on albums such as these, which means just 13 tracks of pure garage (and the occasional bit of R&B as well from time to time).

There are various vocalists on the album as the group consists of a 10-piece vocal and DJ mixture, which is great because it brings even more variation to each track. The singles and different vocalists are well interspersed throughout the tracks which is good because you never tire of listening to the album in that way. Usually in an album, you find that all the single releases are at the beginning and then more slow ones at the end, but because there are 4 tracks (or 5 with the remix of Woman Trouble) that have been released as singles, it's good to hear a familiar tune every so often come out of the speakers.

Another thing that I like about it is the fact that none of the tracks go on for too long; unlike similar releases by bands such as Basement Jaxx, Spiller and other garage or dance artists, these tracks don't go on for 7 or 8 minutes but are wrapped up within a nice 4 or 5 minute time period. Don't let this make you think that the album isn't long though, with 13 tracks the album is getting on for an hour in length (over an hour with the blank tracks included).

If there was one bad thing that I would have to say about the album, it would be the fact that the bonus track is on the 99th 'track'. There are a total of 86 blank tracks between 'We Should Get Together' and 'Woman Trouble Original Version' which just gets annoying if you want to listen to it but you have to skip through to track 99 everytime.

Here is a brief run-through of all the tracks of the album. Bear in mind that these are all garage style (for those of you who don't know, garage is basically dance music with lyrics over the top) and so I am not going to say that with every track.

1. Think About Me - A nice enough tune, on any other album this would have been released as a single, although on this one there are so many singles already released that it is impossible to release any more. A nice female vocalist sings a pleasant song over a nice beat. It's what garage is all about.

2. Re-rewind - The original title for the album, and the title of the pre-release album and was the first single to be released off the CD. It features Craig David and was one of the biggest sellers of 99. It stayed at Number 1 for 2 weeks before slowly sliding its way down the charts. A nice beat and surprisingly lack of harmony to Craig's voice makes a great song as pop and garage.

3. Outrageous - A great bit of vocoder work is one of the first things you notice about this song, although it is repeated quite often which gets annoying after the first few hearings, although this does change part way through. A more up-beat song in general with a mix of minor accompaniment and a major repeated synth tune over the top of the main melody.

4. Please Don't Turn Me On - The latest offering to be released from the album, and one of my person favourites. Lifford is the vocalist on this one, and, although unknown by a large majority of the population makes an immediate impact with his definitive and very R&B style voice. A nice up-beat with a great chorus with synth string background.

5. Twentyfourseven - This song has a very pleasant xylophone background to the majority of it which makes it sound like a Whitney Houston song. I would say this song was more R&B than Garage, with a very american feel to it. Not a bad song at all, and it makes a nice change from the heavy-beat garage which you are getting slightly tired of by this stage in the album.

6. Something - Getting back into the garage mood again, this track is a great party piece of material, although the vocal part isn't as good as some of the others. Not the best track on the album at all, but a nice filler.

7. Movin Too Fast (New Version) - The second release for the band, this is another favourite of mine. More of a pop song with an added bass, this track is still as popular now as it was when it was released almost a year ago.

8. R U Ready - Another pleasant filler that doesn't really have a catchy tune to it but is more for just listening to. The bass underneath is nice and constant, and although not that interesting, is entertaining enough, certainly moreso than other artists I could name who have appalling filler tracks. With some rap in parts, it's hard to imagine what it sounds like in some respects, it is one you have to listen to to hear.

9. I Can't Give It Up - Sounding very familiar to another tune on the album, you can't help but think 'oh no, this album is going downhill from here' although when the lyrics come, you realise that the track is actually home to a very beautiful and interesting song with emotion through the strong garage feel.

10. Woman Trouble - The third and perhaps least successful release off the album, the Artful Dodger certainly seem to like it more than the general public - there are two versions on the album. This one is the one that was released as a single in early summer last year. A large number of catchy phrases in one song, this song contains such familiar phrases as 'I Feel Fantastic, Boombastic, Ecstatically Astounded' and 'I Feel Surrounded, Confounded, Emotionally Dumbfounded'. This one also features Craig David which makes the garage feel almost disappear with his emotive voice.

11. What You Gonna Do? - Just when you thought the album couldn't get any better, this mix of garage and more of Craig David's lyrical genius brightens up the feel even more with the yet again syncopated bass and various other techniques used.

12. We Should Get Together - A much lighter style of garage, this song captures some excellent lyrics and puts them to great use in with a very original synth xylophone background. Perhaps this song might have been better without the garage bass which comes in part-way through, but still a loveable mix of dance and good music.

13. (or track 99 on album) - Woman Trouble (original version) - To be honest, I don't see all together that much different between this track and the released version, except that this track keeps the same accompaniment all the way through, which makes it slightly more boring than the other version. Nevertheless, a decent track, and one worthy of commendation still.

Altogether, this album is a fine blend of garage, R&B and pure great music. I would strongly recommend that everyone buy this album as it features so much within one album. It covers different styles and genres of dance, and is great for everyone, although perhaps better for the garage lovers out there. Not a bad purchase at all, if a little too similar-track sounding for non-avid garage fans. Well worth a listen!