ALBUM SCAN: Tongue N' Cheek

Dizzee Rascal
Tongue N' Cheek (2009)
Album Scan
By Arik C.












For those too lazy to read the rest of the review, you can be assured that Dizzee keeps his streak going.  Four albums deep and he's yet to release a bad one.  Go Dizzee.  Though his latest, Tongue'n'Cheek has dipped the lowest.

In a way, Tongue'n'Cheek is a happy tragedy.  It's perhaps the final transition of the UK MC from hard, underground grime rapper to plucky, happy dance-centric pop-element-embracing rhymer.  Where as this is often a bad thing, and I guess it is, it's all about the music.  Dizzee Rascal makes this conversion the best way possible:  By making good music.  Sure it's 90% dance/pop with a rap infusion, but it's solid dance/pop.  It's fun dance/pop.  It's good music, and no matter what direction an artist goes in I'll never get angry at them for making good music.

The album starts on the perfect note.  The club-happy "Bonkers" is like a sandwich of fun on ecstasy bread.  Heavy drums, cool synths, and Dizzee repeatedly spitting about a life gone awry .  It's basically Dizzee giving a room full of drug-induced dancers permission to be as crazy as they'd like: "Some people think I'm bonkers/But I just think I'm free/Now I'm just living my life/Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me."  The highest praise I can give it is that when I hear it, I kinda wanna go bonkers with him.  (And I want to look up the opening credits of that Disney show about the crime-fighting cat on youtube)

"Road Rage" and "Money Money" are the closest to the Dizzee we remember.  "Money Money" is a particularly great classic-sounding Dizzee track.  A track that could fit on any of his previous albums (well, perhaps not Showtime.  It's too upbeat for that LP).  "Holiday" might be the best techno-rap fusion to date.  Imagine John Digweed spinning on Kanye Drums with the UK's favorite MC on top.  Of course, I must give credit where credit's due:  Scottish dance/electronica artist Calvin Harris did the production on this one, along with the highly successful single "Dance Wiv Me."  I approve of both, and I think the experiment of having others produce this album will be worth it if Dizzee forms a long-term bond with Harris.

That's not to say the other producers don't bring it.  I believe having Def Jux producer/MC Cage produce half of of the album wasn't the best idea, as you can tell he started getting bored somewhere around the slightly dull "Freaky Friday" or the strange "Can't Tek No More."  Though he puts out some good work with the aforementioned "Money Money" and the late-90s Destiny's Child-sounding "Dirtee Cash."

If his sophomore album Showtime was his darkest, then this fourth album is his happiest, with Maths + English being his perfect transitional fossil.  But you can tell Dizzee Rascal cares about the playability of an album and, like classic-era Puff Daddy, has a good ear at putting a solid album together.  I have faith he'll go five for five one day, but if not: four out of five ain't bad.