Released: 06/07/09, Polydor Records



‘Symphonies’ started life as a cover of ‘Hypnotize’ by Notorious BIG. Not sure what happened along way, but the song has been reborn here as shuffling, studenty hip-hop with swirling string and choral samples.Lyrically, this is Black’s take on the après-last orders, ‘what’s it all about, mate?’ soul-searching that every male songwriter indulges in from time to time.  Sadly, Black‘s thin vocals are so terminally white they actually bleach out the beats and his rhymes wallow in rink-e-dink clichés like ‘I do get lonely/ scared I’m phony’. The whole affair sounds like some junior Mike Skinner covering ‘Bittersweet Symphony’.  In fact, it would be no great shock to hear Black break from his taxi rank epiphanies to order a chicken burger and chips. Apparently Black has sampled the drum loop from Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ for this track, which some people might consider A Great Pop Thing. In fact it sounds so stilted and anonymous here it’s astonishing anyone would even notice. Hardly Coldcut sampling ‘Funky Drummer’ is it? 

Posted In Single Reviews, Jul 07 2009. Words - Richard