Lady Sovereign made her career as the little white midget in the ever-developing grime scene. Despite being 5", she delivered a lippy, frank and loud sound, and it was lapped up by London's underground Scene. As her popularity rose, Lady reached a #6 in the UK charts with a little thanks to the
Ordinary Boys, on the record 9 to 5, and made history, becoming the first UK female to be signed to the Def Jam label.
When a
myspace bulletin confirmed that a second album was due for future release, the obvious question was would Lady Sovereign abandon her Garage roots and try to appeal to a more mainstream market? After falling out with her label at a US concert, then proclaiming her hate of America to audiences, and herself, great things were not expected.
Well, a lot has happened since 2006! Since the Klaxons and
CSS rode in on their robotic horses in 2007, bearing the new rave phenomenon, every artist wanted to add an 'Electric Feel' to their song (Pardon the blatant
MGMT reference.) But when Kylie tried her very best to move into the electronic scene (shown posing with robots in her video for 'WOW') we were all waiting for somebody to tell us it was all a sick joke!
Lady Sovereign hasn't exactly avoided the new rave cliche. Her new single "So Human" has been rejected by critics, her sacrilegious sampling of The
Cure's 'Close to Me' has caused somewhat of an uproar, and is not exactly modest! The difference is that all the critics are close to over 50, and are exactly the people that are preventing music from moving on! The track is upbeat, and is just as
grittily wonderful as previous efforts (Random, Love Me Or Hate Me etc...) And her sharp (if not shrill) voice works perfectly with the
unsingable hook of the original song. The record deals with Bad days and getting up off the ground, and faithfully references the Cure with the line, "I've waited hours for this, I've made myself so sick", capturing the desperate feel.
Sovereign has showed she has matured, but in her own non-cliched way. So, I hope and dearly believe that this track will become a rising track of the Summer 2009!
Watch The Video (And while you're positive, try not to look at the frankly hideous puffer jacket)
and the finger to those indie scenesters and critics who are too cool for any one's worth.
Those of you who were lucky enough to live through the seventies (Well... That's an opinion point) are likely to be distracted when looking back on the era by the colors, the music, the culture and Gary Glitter. One thing you will probably have to be reminded of is the strange vocabulary that developed;
Lady Sovereign made her career as the little white midget in the ever-developing grime scene. Despite being 5", she delivered a lippy, frank and loud sound, and it was lapped up by London's underground Scene. As her popularity rose, Lady reached a #6 in the UK charts with a little thanks to the Ordinary Boys, on the record 9 to 5, and made history, becoming the first UK female to be signed to the Def Jam label.
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