'Engurland (City Shanties)' - Dizraeli (album review)

Revitalizing, invigorating, stimulating – nope, not some soap-based beauty product but Dizraeli’s ‘Engurland (City Shanties)’. UK Hip Hop has not seen anything quite like this before.

With clear folk influences the album begins with ‘Homeward Bound (On The Overground)’ which lays out all the essentials of what’s to come, only the rapping is missing; seamen’s harmonics, beats, guitars and fiddles and scratched samples will get you stoked for the rest of the album.

The album flows perfectly, each song seems to share elements with the last. ‘Engurland’ is a gloriously sarcastic anthem and a faultless analysis of our society – I defy you not to sing along. Then, before you know it Dizraeli is imagining the staff of a supermarket making sweet music using everyday objects on the comical ‘Bomb Tesco’. ‘Take Me Dancing’ has the most beautiful melodies, ‘Pen Tangle’, ‘It Won’t Be Long’ and ‘Reach In’ provide a few minutes respite from Hip Hop then ‘Maria’ sees Dizraeli skilfully tell the sad story of love gone bad.

‘Reach Out’ proves itself to be the perfect track – one that stands alone as well as something that contributes so much to the structure of an album. It sounds just as great on the LP.

‘Engurland (City Shanties)’ was released on Monday 12th October, can be heard here and is a must for your collection if you are fan of plain good music. Look out for ‘Bomb Tesco’ – coming soon as a single with video and D&B remix.