Plan B - 'iLL Manors' scored 8 / 10
Not since the golden years of Stock, Aitken and Waterman have we lived through a time when pop music has served such a shallow functional role – from ‘I Gotta Feeling’ pop that’s made to uplift, to ‘Someone Like You’ pop that’s made to reminisce, to the all-consuming Guetta Lolpop Mafia and their quest to make us dance. People who keep bleating that there’s no anti-Establishment sentiment in the charts any more forget that being political largely prevents you from being pop. There’s plenty of social commentary in music, but when was the last time you heard Killer Mike in the Live Lounge? We mention all this because Plan B is, or was, a pop star. His last album ‘The Defamation of Strickland Banks’ was a soulful, if slightly hammy, concept album, which made Ben Drew a commercial ...more at nme.com
NME Recommended Albums on Plan B
6 months agoPlan B - 'iLL Manors' scored 8 / 10 Not since the golden years of Stock, Aitken and Waterman have we lived through a time when pop music has served such a shallow functional role – from ‘I Gotta Feeling’ pop that’s made to uplift, to ‘Someone Like You’ pop that’s made to reminisce, to the all-consuming Guetta Lolpop Mafia and their quest to make us dance. People who keep bleating that there’s no anti-Establishment sentiment in the charts any more forget that being political largely prevents you from being pop. There’s plenty of social commentary in music, but when was the last time you heard Killer Mike in the Live Lounge? We mention all this because Plan B is, or was, a pop star. His last album ‘The Defamation of Strickland Banks’ was a soulful, if slightly hammy, concept album, which made Ben Drew a commercial ...more at nme.com