KID ACNE – Romance Ain’t Dead – 2007 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: Eddy Fresh – Roc Roc Radio – FCUK All Lately
SOUNDBITE: “The last ten years nothing’s changed for me/ I still wear fat laces and paint graff-i-ti”
RATING: 4/5
To say that Kid Acne has followed the Beastie Boys’ early 90s formula of creating an album of hip-hop punctuated by the odd hardcore punk track, while making sure his hip-hop sounds like the Beastie Boys or Run DMC in the mid-late 80s - albeit in a Yorkshire accent - could sound a trifle reductive. It’s also true. It has to be said that prior to getting a copy of Romance Ain’t Dead I hadn’t actually heard any Kid Acne stuff and whilst researching for this review it struck me that he’s the kind of artist people either love or hate. In fact he has inspired an impressive amount of bile from some because he’s too retro/ goofy/ regional/ or crap. Ok this is a homage / piss-take of the Beasties which was in turn a homage/ piss-take of Run DMC but that type of shit’s so old it almost sounds new and I am old enough to remember both Run DMC and the Beasties in the 80s. In any case it’s done with love and gets retro brownie points for not trying to emulate De La Tribe Called Nubian Sheep. Also his punk sounds less like Minor Threat / Black Flag than it does The Sex Pistols. He might reimagine KRS-One’s South Bronx as South Yorks (“…the South, South Yorks!”) but then I didn’t find the idea without humour and you can’t take anything a man with lyrics like "I’ve got two phones like a drug dealer/ Two phones like a drug dea-ler" (Worst Luck) too seriously. Having said that, the chorus to You’re Not Wrong ("Am I right? You know what?/ You’re not wrong") does get on my tits – but it gets on my tits so much I almost like it. Furthermore, saying Kid Acne is very proud of his Yorkshireman status is a bit like saying DJs like playing records and his lyrics include more ‘me sen’s than whippets in a Sheffield local - but what sense would it make for him to do otherwise? He’s not from Brixton. As far as I’m concerned – Req One’s production is easily bearable while Acne’s lyrics and variety encourage me to listen all the way through without skipping tracks and there’s even one or two I’d bung on the wheels of steel. ‘Appen you can’t say fairer than that!
Out now.
RELATED LINKS
Listen to Kid Acne - Romance Ain't Dead
Kid Acne - Myspace
SEARCH MONKEYBOXING EMPIRE REVIEWS
1 comment:
Ha ha I saw them in Leeds supporting Jehst... I though they fucking sucked, as did everyone I was down with.
The Run-DMC->Beasties->Kid Acne thing you mention is accurate, except to say that there's a descending chronological order of goodness as well as originality.
But as you say, they're probably one of those "Marmite" acts that some people like for some unfathomable reason.
;-)
Check ya inabit
A'log
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