Benjamin Zephaniah

Band: Benjamin Zephaniah
Label: One Little Indian
Title: Naked

Review (1)	Release Details	Add Release	Releases (1)	Articles (0)
Cover Art (0)	Versions (0)	Edit Release	Releases List (1)	Reviews (1)
Pictures (0)			Summary (0)	Related (0)
			Jukebox (0)	List All (1)

Band:Benjamin Zephaniah
Title:Naked
Reviewed By:Daniel Cressey
Date Published:09/02/2005

Label:One Little Indian
Format:CD
Release Year:Label
Lookup:

This album from radical poet Benjamin Zephaniah falls in a strange position, between musical genres and without any clear place to be or go. Zephaniah’s anger and discontent still burn brightly – “I wanna catch gameshow hosts and put the bastards on trial,” he says on ‘Naked’. He boils over talking about the politicians he despises and the racism still experienced by black people in this supposedly liberal society. His humour is also intact however. On ‘Superstar’ he takes a wry look at modern celebrity and how “life’s hard for superstars – the road cannot contain our cars”.

Zephaniah’s poetry has a huge bite. His humour is spot on and his scathing disdain razor sharp. The targets of Zephaniah’s scorn are well selected and nicely dissected.

As music, however, it doesn’t totally hold together.

The backing tracks for the poetry are strangely unsatisfying. While technically competent and generally in-sync with the spoken words there is a hint of irrelevance about them. Zephaniah’s declamations are quite strong enough to stand on their own. Slightly retro backing music underneath diminishes their impact rather than adding to their punch.

'Naked' doesn’t fit with any current musical genre, but nor is it strong enough to truly claim its own ground. This is a shame as Zephaniah has a lot to say and a nice way of saying it.

Track Listing:

Commenting On: Naked by Benjamin Zephaniah

Header

Comment:

Your Name

Your Location ie London, England

tick box before submitting comment

First Previous Next Last

Related Bands (edit)

Related Labels
One Little Indian

Review Header

Debut album of music from radical poet Benjamin Zephaniah, which sadly falls " between musical genres and without any clear place to be or go"

Articles A-Z
View All				A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K
L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z

Naked - CD
Debut album of music from radical poet Benjamin Zephaniah, which sadly falls " between musical genres and without any clear place to be or go"

First Previous Next

Reviews A-Z
View All				A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K
L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z