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Someone's looking for a number 1.

Not exactly the direction I was looking for Kano to take, but its not bad...seems like Kano has jumped on the autotune bandwagon just as it is about to die out, or at least in the form he uses here....
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estelle and kano, american boy live. kano absolutely merks it. still the number one uk mc for me!

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The proton beam is circulated for the first time in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and the highest-energy particle accelerator, located at CERN, near Geneva, under the Franco-Swiss border.
1. The Streets-Everything is borrowed
Album no.4 was a big hit for me, far from perfect but a huge improvement on album no. 3. Heaven for the weather is a fantastic summery upbeat tune, and one of my favourites of the year!
Best track: The Streets-Heaven for the Weather
if you want to read a bit more, check my previous posts on The Streets

2. Friendly Fires-Friendly Fires
This album is essentially a blend of

Awesome pulsating electronic beats
fantastic soft vocals
surprisingly good lyrics
sparkling clattering electro-pop
so its awesome. Love this band, randomly found the album for about 5 euros in a record shop in Paris. Go and see them live on the NME tour (youd also get to see the amazing White Lies), they were great at Glasto.
Best track: Friendly Fires-Paris
Bonus: Friendly Fires-Paris (Aeroplane remix)

3. Kings of Leon-Only By The Night
For some reason a switch has turned in my head and I am suddenly not so keen on this band. First 3 albums are all brilliant, but I cant get so enthusiastic about album 4. I have gone from loving Sex on Fure to finding it really annoying, and it even annoys me when its played in a club. It is frustrating that a load of randoms suddenly think they're big KoL fans, after hearing two songs (hearing Fearne Cotton rave on about her two favourite bands being Take That and KoL is a good example of this). Anyway, they deserve any success they get because they are a great band, and this album does have some great tunes on it, it just seems to lack the energy of previous efforts.
Best track: Kings of Leon-Use Somebody

4. Kano-140 grime street
Hmmmmmmmm. You gotta feel sorry for Kano, he always seems to follow the wrong trend. Last years pop-slanted London Town didnt get him the recognition he deserves, yet both Dizzee and Wiley have had huge success this year from very poppy tunes. Then, as Kano returned to his grimey roots, grime appears to be pretty dead. Wiley seems to have left the genre completely, JME's album was awful and Skepta's average at best, no-one seems to be interested in the grime scene anymore (maybe Tinchy will get big, maybe not). This is quite a good album. Kano is blatantly the best grime MC out there imo, but his talent has never been maintained over the course of an album. album 4 anyone?
Best track: Kano-Hustler

Honourable Mentions:
Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue
Definately need top listen to this more as well! she is a fantastic singer and a very talented lyricist.
Jenny Lewis-Black Sand

Glasvegas: S/T
Im not a big fan of this album, but there is enough to like about it that I think I can be swayed towards really liking this band. I've heard they're crap live though.
This isnt even on the album, but its better than the album version tbh.
Glasvegas:-Daddy's Gone

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after inital disappointment, it was a grower. best hip-hop album of the year so far? after recently listening to the awful ear torture that is jme's "famous", kano is pretty much all the uk grime scene has. i actually thought jme had big potential to make a great album...but its shit...as is skepta's...kano is so much better than any other uk grime mc atm, dizzee isnt really grime anymore...
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Hmmmm, not hugely impressed after 1/2 listens. There are some tunes on this, i guess I shouldn't have been anticipating this album as much as I was. It is frustrating because Kano is such a talented rapper and lyricist, but he just doesnt seem bothered on half his tracks.

Kano-Anywhere We Go feat. Wiley
Kano-These MC's feat. Skepta
Kano-Hustler

Guardian review is very positive:http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/sep/26/popandrock9
Kano doesnt rap fast enough for me on this record hmmm....maybe it will be a grower...
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sounds like Kano is (finally) living up to his potential, with his 3rd album, 140 grime street, his first grime album. Both his previous albums have been good hip-hop albums, but kano has always been capable of more, and from the sounds of the first single it seems he is set to fulfill it. Instead of Kate Nash, Damon Albarn etc, this album features 3 of the biggest grime MC's; Skepta, Wiley and Ghetto with Wiley producing most/all of the album. The first single is hustler, the only mp3 available is the clip from his "MC No.1" mixtape from April. Link below the video
Tracklisting for 140 grime street, due 29th september:
1. 140 Grime St
2. Hustler
3. Paper
4. Hunting We Will Go Ft Ghetto
5. These Mcs Ft Skepta
6. We Gangsta
7. Anywhere We Go Ft Wiley
8. Missing Me
9. Seems Like Things Have Changed
10. Don't Come Around Here
11. I Stand By It
12. Soldier Ft Mikey J
13. I Like It
14. Off Licence
15. Too Advanced
16. Aim For The Sky

[mp3]Kano-Hustler
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after going progressively further from his grime roots with each of his two albums (although he made 2 great hip-hop albums) kano is going back to grime for album number 3, 140 grime street. wiley and skepta are heavily involved with the production, and the first track (feat. Wiley) got its first airplay last week. cheers to whoever ripped this.....
Anywhere we go feat. Wiley (radio rip) -Kano
nice
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