ASBO 4 LIFE...in its entirity
I was lucky enough to get a taste of ‘ASBO 4 Life’ a while back and really enjoyed the five tracks it included. So when approaching the album, I hoped that the reminder of it would include just as many great tunes such as ‘By Any Means Necessary’ and ‘Disguise’ on the sample.
As well as these five songs, ‘ASBO 4 LIFE’ includes only a few really impressive numbers, the rest are quite average. The opener for a start seems to be a complete waste of a minute and the closing tune ‘Garlic Bread’ is also of little interest. Those I found significance in includes the very catchy and imaginative ‘Space Police’, the addictive electro beat of ‘Rollin’ and the combination of dance beats and rap of ‘3D’.
There is creativity running though this album like blood through veins. Not only is this noticeable on ‘Space Police’, but very evident on ‘Strobe Lights’. The chorus is simple yet when mixed with dance beats, the imagination is given the opportunity to run wild and free, you are able to visualise scenes of a dance club. Another track that uses creativity to such high standards is ‘Apathy’. This one however uses the creative ability quite differently. It doesn’t encourage visual representations in the mind of a listener based on the music as ‘Strobe Lights’ does, but makes a connection between lyrics and vocals. At first the song just seemed to be presented rather blandly, but it suits the atmospheric conditions presented by the song to a T. ‘Nothing Ever Happens’ is yet another example of vocally presenting the ambiance of a song very well; after a while the honest chorus gets extremely additive.
The remainder of this album just about stands up to the standards I had come to expect after hearing the first five songs so congrats goes out to Goldie Lookin’ Chain for such a creation.