Rudimental impressed many with the release of their debut, "Home", with many applauding the band's organic take on modern drum and bass music, as well as their production skills and excellent use of guest vocalists. All this earned the quartet (consisting of Amir Amor, Piers Agget, Kesi Dryden and DJ Locksmith) a Mercury Prize nomination in 2013. Two years later, the group are back withRudimental impressed many with the release of their debut, "Home", with many applauding the band's organic take on modern drum and bass music, as well as their production skills and excellent use of guest vocalists. All this earned the quartet (consisting of Amir Amor, Piers Agget, Kesi Dryden and DJ Locksmith) a Mercury Prize nomination in 2013. Two years later, the group are back with their second full-length album, "We the Generation".
"We the Generation" largely picks up where "Home" left off, with their organic drum and bass sound still right at the forefront of their music. Experimentation is never to far away however, with the quartet mixing funk, soul and R&B into their sound. Guest vocalists again, like "Home", dominate the record with Ella Eyre, MNEK and Anne-Marie all returning to the fold after their previous work on "Home". Other collaborators include Foy Vance, Will Heard and Ed Sheeran, who features on the two main singles from the album - a reworked version of "Bloodstream" from Sheeran's second album "x", and "Lay It All on Me". "Bloodstream" is nothing short of fantastic, and is superior to the original version on "x", as well as being the album's perfect choice as a lead single. "Lay It All on Me" is arguably, the least Ed Sheeran-like song he's been involved in yet, but is a good change in style for him. Lyrically, it's one of the album's best songs, as is "Love Ain't Just a Word", fronted by Anne-Marie and Dizzee Rascal. Rascal provides his best performance on a song since the "Tongue n' Cheek" days of 2009, and Anne-Marie, vocalist on four of the record's fourteen songs, is very impressive on each of her features, which include the very sensual "Foreign World" and "All That Love". The opener here, "I Will for Love" with Will Heard, opens the album in atmospheric fashion, and the closer, "New Day", featuring Bobby Womack, has a broken funk-guitar line throughout, and ends the album in the same atmospheric vein as it started. Even with eleven guest vocalists on the album, they often bend to what Rudimental want to do, as opposed to the opposite, which commonly happens on albums with many guests vocalists. The production is pretty solid throughout, with good use of overdubbing on the vocals, along with the instrumentation sounding quite organic, especially in the first half of the album.
Overall, the album is a very effective continuation of their sound, with excellent vocal performances throughout, great songwriting in parts, as well as being well produced. "We the Generation" should easily please the faithful, as well as earn new fans. A superior follow-up to "Home".
Album Highlights - "Love Ain't Just a Word", "Rumour Mill", "Foreign World", "Bloodstream" and "Lay It All on Me".… Expand
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