'Dear Listener' - Lowkey (album review)

One of the best albums this year (see my newly amended list – I underestimated this one). Lowkey’s years of hard work, although lamented somewhat on document ‘Rise and Fall’, have really paid off – ‘Dear Listener’ is a complete and comprehensive release.

Observations and musings on subjects such as the motivation behind infidelity, the contrasting realities of life in Britain and Iraq, an interesting take on Hip Hop’s mortality and man’s morality are the order of the day here. But just in case you can’t see past the contents to the bare rhyme skills ‘Alphabet Assassin’ is thrown in to remind you that Lowkey is linguistically ahead of many of today’s MCs. In fact it’s the lyricism that makes the topics he explores impact so heavily.

‘Relatives’ produced by Sivey and featuring Logic is a cleverly interwoven tale of two men - one Iraqi, one British. It would have helped if the rappers had very different voices but it’s not too hard to follow who’s saying what. ‘Revolution’ is a beatbox production by Faith SFX and features a taste of things to come with Jon McClure on chorus duties. ‘I’m Back’ is a full on Quincey Tones produced banger – a tongue twisting exercise over a harpsichord-laced beat.

There are plenty more tracks that I could mention but instead, I’m just going to recommend a purchase – let the music speak for itself. It’s out now on So Empire/Hip Hop Village although its official release date is 26th January 2009.