Album Review: Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer - "A Thoroughly Modern Existential Crisis"

 

Like the Vibrators album we reviewed last week, this is another album which we heard in time for it to make last year's Top 50 album list but by the time we did so, all the review slots until the end of December had been used up. So anyway, here's the review finally, better late than never etc.

Maybe it's just me but given the way we've all been put through the wringer in the last 12 months or so, music that can make you chuckle a bit seems to have become a bit more valuable in recent months and so the arrival of a lockdown album from Harlow's premier exponent of "chap-hop" Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer (who those with long memories may remember as Jim Burke, frontman of indie dance Britpop era almost-weres Collapsed Lung) actually feels a bit like welcoming an old friend back after a long break away.

A Thoroughly Modern Existential Crisis is every bit as silly as you'd expect from someone whose gimmick is that of a toff gangster rapper but the fact is that Mr B has been ekeing out a career from this for over a decade now and you don't last that long at something without being good at it - put it this way, Goldie Lookin' Chain this is very much not. And again, maybe this is just from having been stuck in lockdown hell for so long but if you can't let out at least a bit of a knowing chuckle at songs like Garden Envy, You're A Twerp On Zoom, All I Do Now and Live Stream For One, you maybe really need to get your sense of humour looked at.

Like I say, this album doesn't offer any answers to the horrific situation the world finds itself in but it's simply the sound of Mr B doing what he does best by wrapping some clever wordplay and an endearingly silly sense of humour around some experiences that we've all become depressingly familiar with over the last year. Certainly the belly laughs in here may just help you keep a hold of your sanity in the next couple of months.

Bandcamp link

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