Have a listen.... Plan B - Strickland Banks

The music scene at the moment is one that can both delight and infuriate. For every good band out there, you get 4 or 5 mediocre ones that wouldn’t be given the light of day back when “indie” music wasn’t the flavour of the month. Scouting For Girls is perhaps one of the most obvious middle-of-the-road bands that I can think of, and that is without trying. And yet every single they release is pretty much guaranteed a top ten position in the charts. Its enough to make you want to turn your back on music altogether.

But then, out of nowhere, something emerges out of the dark to really grab you by the kahoonas and make you say “This sounds nothing like Scouting For Girls!” This, my friends, is exactly what Plan B’s latest offering has done to me. The Defamation of Strickland Banks is an intelligent, sharp and well written album brought to you by some one whose previous lyrics have included “I break a bottle over some boys head, stab a broken piece in to the poor [expletive] leg”. Not exactly top ten stuff.

Plan B’s first album was a graphic tale of East London living through the eyes of an youth. Absent fathers, underage relationships and honour killings are some of the gritty subjects he raps about. And yet, all is done in a way that really makes you think about the words that are being said to you. This record was so far away from being middle of the road, so much so, that the road is a dot to it.

So when I first heard that Plan B was doing a “Soul” record, I was somewhat surprised. Even more so when I saw that he popped up as a lead character in British film Harry Brown, staring Michael Caine as a man pushed to the edge by exactly the type of character that Plan B had sung about on his debut.

The end product, The Defamation of Strickland Banks is without doubt an absolutely shocking record. And by shocking I by no way mean bad. Its shocking when you consider who it came from, shocking at how well it has been received and most important shocking as to how good it is. The whole album is a story of a Soul singer who is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. It follows him from nights out, being in court to the troubles that life in prison hold on a daily basis. The idea being that this story is being made into a film, supposedly right now.

Writing a good album is one thing, writing a good story is another. What Plan B has done here is combine the two without compromise, no song on the album is merely there as a filler to continue the story. And each song is without doubt worthy of a top ten chart position, and so far that has been the case. Singles “Stay Too Long” and “She Said” are both feet tapping, dance floor filling songs that showcase not only the new soulful direction of the album but also the gritty rapping that ensures the record is very much in the here and now. Standout tracks “Praying” and “Recluse” are more energetic and will surely be hitting the charts soon. “Praying” being very similar to the classic Frankie Valli track “Beggin”, and comparisons to Smokey Robinson will surely mean that it will appeal to different generations of music fans.

The Defamation of Strickland Banks has taken the Album Charts by storm, twice taking the number one spot. Something that a young Ben Drew growing up Forrest Gate could never of dreamed of, and yet here we are. So go now, down to your local music establishment and treat yourself, this after all, is defiantly not Scouting For Girls.

 

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