Cooly G displays the full spectrum of her sound, plummeting from her sometimes melancholy, sometimes romantic songs through to her more menacing, trackier style. The album simultaneously recalls a legacy of black British music, filtering the female pressure and reggae lilt of lovers rock's kitchen sink dramas, the sweet seduction of '80s-flavoured "Quiet Storm" soul, through to sour, bitter-sweet synths, and the polyrhythmic dub decay of early jungle and tough tribal drums. The biggest surprise of the record is Cooly's cover of Coldplay's 'Trouble', making it shiver and bounce with a strange clock-work rhythm and epic techno strings. Concluding the album on the more colourful and heady 'Up In My Head', combining stop start rhythms with intoxicated vocals.
T**Q
Definition of 'a grower'
The front cover provides a great visual representation of the music - the beautiful Merissa Campbell, bathed in luxuriant shadow, looks seductively at the listener. Out of focus in the foreground is a leather-clad fist saying 'don't mess with me...'.From the opening processed funk licks of 'He Said I Said', you are drawn into her world. The first, more vocal half of the album holds hints of Detroit, Jamaica, Moving Shadow/Goldie/Bukem style drum and bass (less the Amen breaks), old Kiss FM jams but remains fresh as you like. Seductive, addictive and mesmerising. The tracks are never immediate pop hits with obvious sonic sugar rushes but build and flow to create an impeccable atmosphere of twilit streetscapes.The centrepiece of the LP is a brilliant, unlikely re-working of Coldplay's 'Trouble', initially jarring in comparison to memories of the wet indie original but injects it with menace and emotional depth.It finishes with a superb suite of dark bass music which avoids the pitfalls of sounding hackneyed and generic. The beats are Soca-infused, martial patterns that sound organic and tough but accompanied by melodicism missing from a lot of the more machismo end of the spectrum.This is an album that I return to again and again - it just doesn't get old.
B**L
Cooly G - Playin Me
Cooly G's Album ist definitiv gelungen, hat aber einige Längen! Das Album ist bestimmt von ihrem Gesang, die Produktionen begleiten sie und kreieren tolle Sound-Landschaften um die Texte herum! Aber in einigen Stellen schafft es der Track nicht auf den Punkt, und will kein Ende nehmen, was sicherlich bei einigen zum Drücken der NEXT-Taste führen wird. Dennoch 4,5 Sterne, aufgerundet, weil mir sonst alles sehr gut gefällt!
O**A
Super
Die Frau entwickelt sich. Oszilliert irgendwo zischen hyper / future / dub / garage / blah.... Eine meiner Lieblingsplatten 2012.
