album review: theophilus london. timez are weird these days. 3 october 2011. warner brothers records
(buy here)
so, the man with the coolest name in music finally releases his debut album proper after three mixtapes of varying quality. it’s been three years since jam! found its way onto the interweb and people started asking who this theophilus london was. one or two tracks stood out from that but it wasn’t until the follow up, this charming mixtape that i started to take notice. as well as the re-inclusion of the best song from jam, ‘ultraviolet’, it was this release that included the excellent ‘grey x sage’ and even better ‘humdrum town’. couple that with an album title and front cover that pays homage to elvis costello and i was fully sold in. by the time i want you dropped in last year mr london was officially the “next big thing”. he was on the guardian’s buzz graph. he stole a lindsay lohan starring muse video and made it a hell of a more stylish for a cover of ‘oops’. he was regularly being featured in style etiquette and had become a certified style icon.
with the hype now at levels not seen since ofwgkta the week before, how could london possibly ensure a good album? getting dan carey, a man who has worked with css and hot chip among others, to produce isn’t a bad place to start.
just in case anybody has missed the build up to the album it starts with ‘last name london’ in an effort to ensure that everybody knows who’s album this is. it’s a nice start and a good reflection of a lot of the good things from this charming mixtape. the theme of keeping hold of the sound of the mixtapes stays strong when holly miranda’s voice kicks in on ‘love is real’, a track that will offend nobody but delight some. the track also shows off some of the record’s diversity, especially when compared to ‘why even try’, which features sara from tegan and… fame.
it is the variation in sound within the album that is both its biggest strength and weakness. ‘wine and chocolates’ is a wonderful track and is theophilus at his best. he just can’t seem to resist putting shit like ‘girls girls $’ on there as well though.
7
this review originally appeared on the 405
