Album Review

RPA And The United Nations Of Sound – United Nations Of Sound

• 19th Jul 2010

If you’re a hip hop or R&B artist looking to make a hit record in 2010, you could do worse than get in touch with No I.D., whose CV reads like a dream team of big names in the genre: Common, Kanye West, Jay-z and plenty of others owe much to his studio skills. For a British indie legend, though, picking the Chicago producer to produce your new band’s debut seems a much bigger risk.

It’s a risk that will be judged insane or ingenious on the quality of its end product, and that end product starts impressively enough with the big strings and infectious groove of ‘Are You Ready’ – an incredibly cool and current-sounding track that comes across as a lesson in rock n roll swagger from the former Verve frontman.

It’s a consistent collection that justifies Ashcroft’s reputation as a great songwriter and frontman as he alternates between soulful britpop croons and ballsy blues-fuelled rockers. It’s No I.D.’s production, though, that gives this record its edge. The sound is irresistibly big and polished, think early Primal Scream, embellished with tastefully-applied strings and samples, a happy marriage of latter-day stadium rock and hip-hop, most exemplified by the irresistible ‘America’, which boasts a thrilling beat that wouldn’t be out of place on Jay-z’s last album.

Time will tell how this approach goes down with the mp3-downloading public, but with this album, Ashcroft looks to have achieved what so many other ageing rock stars repeatedly fail at: he’s stayed relevant.