- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
You would call Drew the most exciting rapper Britain has produced since Dizzee Rascal, if that didn't sound like such faint praise.
-
UncutThis is the most powerful, literate and just plain individual British debut album since The Streets' Original Pirate Material. [Jul 2006, p.94]
-
This is one of the most exciting debut albums for sometime.
-
This is a valuable record from a troubling and potentially vital new voice.
-
Q MagazineIt's [his] spin on social commentary that singles Drew out. [Jul 2006, p.116]
-
Alternative PressSometimes it's pretty unpleasant, but it's the rawness that makes it so genuine. [May 2007, p.162]
-
UrbActions' unique and new-fangled deliverance of mostly acoustic and certainly threadbare beats see to it that Plan B doesn't fall into the grime or dubstep pigeonhole. [May 2007, p.97]
-
Plan B manages to milk his biographical plight without resorting to the childhood-trauma-as-pissing-contest tactics of most memoirists.
-
His world may be grittier, but Plan B's up there with Alex Turner as a lyricist, crafting simple and darkly witty songs about the reality of life in Britain.
-
MojoIts sound remains as confrontational and as provocative as its content. [Aug 2006, p.103]
-
B continues to acquit himself admirably on purely technical terms, wrapping a slow, slithering tongue around the quick stabs of his guitar.
-
VibeHis cynical and intimate coming-of-age tales are a welcome twist on British rap. [May 2007, p.116]
-
There's more fear and loathing on Ben Drew's first album than in a year's worth of Daily Mail headlines.
-
Nearly every line contains a shock, a sharp intake of breath. To say this album is worth more as a social document than a musical one is no insult.
-
It’s a shame that this music doesn’t reflect the invention and spark of the words, because shorn of the hip-hop backing and pared down to just voice and guitar, Plan B possesses a certain raw power and vitality.
-
His delivery's certainly interesting, but lacking the nuances of and empathy of, say, Mike Skinner, it's best deployed when not framed by anachronistic loops.
-
When he tries to get serious... Drew comes across as nothing more than a self-important shock artist, way out of his element.
-
Much of the CD is pretty unpleasant, with bleak music that sounds less than innovative and a load of self-important shock rhymes that try too damn hard.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 36 out of 43
-
Mixed: 0 out of 43
-
Negative: 7 out of 43
-
Oct 5, 2013
-
theheatAug 15, 2006
-
elleelectric.Jul 6, 2007