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Elly Roberts reviews

Natty: Man Like I

Distributed by
Atlantic Records

Released: August 2008

Rating: 4/10

Vote and comment on this album:

Male version of buddies Adele, and Lily Allen.

Below all the shiny production, the 24-year-old North Londoner’s debut lacks any major invention of the genre, reggae.

By day, Natty was a studio engineer at Sphere Studios in Battersea who had dreams of making it big.

The debut single, July, has proved popular with significant airtime on BBC Radio 2 – nothing else matches it. Natty’s influences are wide ranging from Bob Marley to Marvin Gaye to Neil Young, not that you’d know it from this collection.

Combining key elements of reggae – Adele/Lily Allen style, he throws in subtle components of hip hop too. Much of Man Like I is geared towards radio friendliness, but ultimately unchallenging.

It is however an easy listening album, though most of it is quite forgettable. It major problem is, there aren’t enough good quality songs. Its best bits are the jaunty and simple Hey Man, and should he edit a swear word, would make an excellent next single. The Ska-styled She Loves Me sees him really hitting his stride, whereas the stripped-back ballad Revolution works beautifully because of its simplicity.

Bedroom Eyes takes some time to get going but it’s a pretty cool track with some neat direction changes.

Then there’s the middling songs such a beat-heavy Cold Town and stuttering and limpless Stoned On You.

Natty’s default button is getting bogged down in dire songs such a wandering Burn This Place Down which is self indulgent in the extreme. There’s a knack of making this kind of track work, which a fledgling Natty hasn’t cracked yet.

On Last Night he’s trying too hard to do a Lily Allen, his chum, and dull closer Say Bye Bye could have been left on the cutting room floor.

File under: Needs to do better.

Weblinks: nattymusic.com / myspace.com/natty4d

The full list of tracks included are :

1. July 2. Cold Town 3. Stoned On You 4. Revolution 5. Badman 6. Burn Down This Place 7. Hey Man 8. Bedroom Eyes 9. Last Night 10. Coloured Souls 11. Say Bye Bye

Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.

As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.

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