[rating=4.50]
As someone who reviews music for a magazine, it’s common to get numerous CDs from “the next big thing” – most of which are clearly not, in fact, the next big thing. Most of those get a couple of listens, and quickly move to a pile of CDs about which I shan’t waste your time, dear reader, nor mine.
Then there are CDs worthy of more listening, and a precious few worthy of joining my regular playlist. Nitin Sawhney’s new release, London Undersound, is one of those albums. It is a masterpiece.
First off, this album defies easy compartmentalization. Comprised of Sawhney’s production and the guest vocals of myriad, varied musicians (including everyone from Ojos de Brujo to Imogen Heap to Paul McCartney to Natty), the album is all over the map, musically and culturally. The album opens with an incredible example of thoroughly contemporary, hip-hop, exploring the milieu of the 2005 terrorist attacks on the London Underground, its aftershocks, and the changes London has experienced as a result. The account is so personal, so lyrically poignant, that one can’t help wondering where to find its complement chronicling the intense emotions, the experience of “being there,” for the September 11 World Trade Center bombing. It works, musically, and it tells a powerful story of surprise, of change, and of reverberating shock.
The album’s sole consistency is to be found in its defiance of consistency; the second and third tracks fit nicely into the pantheon of moody, melodic pieces highlighting lovely female vocals (in this case, those of Tina Grace and Imogen Heap, respectively). Track four, highlighting the vocals of Paul McCartney, is a moving love song of sorts, exploring the connection, or lack thereof, of one person’s soul to the heart of another; while not groundbreaking, it is certainly listenable.
Moving on, the album explores upbeat jazz (featuring Roxanne Tataei), Middle Eastern hybrids (including a track resembling a hybrid of Gipsy Kings with Natasha Atlas, though actually featuring neither, instead relying on the aforementioned Ojos de Brujo), trip hop-esque downbeat vibes (featuring Tina Grace and Aruba Red), and finishing out with some New Agey tracks that wouldn’t be out of place in a shop selling incense.
All in all, the album is powerful, beautiful, and intensely varied – to its great credit.
