Even if you ignore the brilliance of their name- which you absolutely should never do- the Swet Shop Boys are absolutely one of the greatest things on Earth

+18

A rap duo- of which there aren’t nearly enough of in the first place- consisting of Indian-American Heems and the British-Pakistani Riz MC that chiefly spin takes on the scandalously under-represented subject of Muslim and second generation Asian immigrant experiences in the West, the police’s harassment of their ethnicity, and the hellish seduction of fundamentalism

+16

Well, yeah, I just love this band so much and… hey, do you get to show your face now, Ed?

Awesome. Anyway: Swet Shop Boys still find time to comment on the tensions between India and Pakistan, pen an ode or two to a girl who’s, like, really fit, and most importantly regularly keep us informed of how banging they are

+28

 

Oh, and they’re frequently fucking hilarious

+12

 

 

Is that fair? Yes.

+5

 

I don’t mean that Swet Shop Boys are ‘hilarious’ in a Weird Al Jankovic way, where they can think of seemingly endless ways to incorporate the word ‘fart’ into their lyrics, but proper Half man Half Biscuit at their best witty!

+22

 

 

Before I listened to this album again this afternoon, after not hearing it for a while after concentrating on thinking up spurious rants to go on while writing about roughly 98

other records, I was worried that I might have placed it a little to high, maybe I’d appreciated the idea of it, and the frequently waggish lyrical flourishes, and lost sight of what was a generally just a decent album

-3

Maybe I liked what it is, rather than what it is, y’know?

-5

However, listening to it again reminded me what an absolute riot it is: thumping and catchy hip-hop, that sounds delightfully lo-fi without ever sounding cheap, and knows exactly when to wrap things up just when it’s potentially, possibly, growing old

+42

 

Oh, and before I watched the video for the fabulous Aja to make my Legit Bosses 2016 YouTube playlist, I had no idea that Riz MC was actually Emmy Award winning actor Riz Ahmed. I’m inventing an award for that shit:

 

Metacritic: +80

Length: 34 minutes +12

Best Lyric: ‘Ashes to ashes/Dust to side chicks’ +1

Number of AMAZING songs: 1 (+10)

…But Are All the Rest of the Songs Kinda Amazing Anyway? Absolutely +100

Is the last song just the first track but played on Ukulele? No -1

Total: 496

https://swetshopboys.bandcamp.com/