Album Review

Karl Phillips and the Midnight Ramblers – Dangerous EP

• 11th Jul 2012

Oh sweet jesus

Is this for real?

There is a song on this EP called Stabby Joe and i open up the CD case to see some rude boi staring out at me, cigar in his mouth while a cigarette rests in his hand.

What is it they say about first impressions lasting?

I guess they also say that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover either, so let’s forget old clichés for a minute and get to work on this review.

The first track out of four, entitled Dangerous, opens with a well constructed dub-step beat, solid enough to hold its own up against other urban peers, and clearly the lyrical content is a reflection of ‘the streets’, the increased drum n bass style tempo of the chorus kicks in, yet the cringe inducing female vocal hook is possibly over-doing it slightly.

Technically, it is doing everything right, yet something about the track just doesn’t sit right for me, regardless, we move on.

Surprisingly, the beat driven opener is followed by the sound of a traditional band set-up, side stepping my expectations as to what Faithful Stanley may have had in store (can you see a theme running with the titles? Think about it….), once more, Karl Phillips abilities on the mic are never in question yet the flirtations with violence are hardly appealing.

A similar path is trod on the aforementioned Stabby Joe before closing track, Nervous, rounds out the release with a rather more jolly exercise in funk which thankfully appears to be rather playful and unthreatening, with no mentions of blades, stanleys, or stabbings.

Even with repeated listens, I still can’t make my mind up conclusively, I enjoy the music, I even feel endeared slightly to Karl Phillips, I certainly know I would be rooting for him if he was a hometown talent playing back room gigs down my local, yet I can’t whole heartedly get behind him.

Perhaps it is the cocky swagger and over-reliance on badman posturing, it has certainly all been done before, and been done to better effect, yet if this is the life he truly leads, than who am I to knock him for reflecting it in his lyrics.

Perhaps ‘come to my borough if you wanna get stabbed’ will be sung as an ASBO anthem by disaffected youths, perhaps this is truly the sound of today.

But I hope not.

My advice, approach with caution.

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