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Album Reviews
Album Review: Wiley – See Clear Now (Asylum Records)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 8 December 2008
Wiley has been riding the charts for the past six months after ‘Wearing My Rolex’ hit number 2 in May, and this is the album on which it, and follow up singles ‘Summertime’ and ‘Cash In My Pocket’, appear. But what’s the long player like? Well, after the biographical ‘Ryder Intro’, the album launches straight into that first single, as though Wiley’s a bit worried the more casual listener won’t remember who he is if he doesn’t. Away from the hits there are some interesting tracks. ‘Step By Step’ features Hot Chip, who provide layering to the beats and melodies to create the kind of strong song you’d expect from Wiley, while the lyrics and phrasing of ‘5am’ shows off his skills as a poetic MC and is a much softer and heartfelt piece. But the album gets quite poppy at times. You’d be forgiven for thinking that ‘Turn It Up’ featured George Michael on the chorus and the intro to ‘Can’t Stop Thinking’ sounds like an Avril Lavigne single. Meanwhile producer Mark Ronson has got his hands on ‘Cash In My Pocket’ and squeezed every drip of the underground culture out of it, making a perfectly formed pop song. It takes ten tracks to get back to the introduction’s harder sound with ‘I Am The Sea’. Wiley has played it pretty safe with ‘See Clear Now’ alternating singles and celebrity guests with just a few newer more interesting tracks. It’s fair to say, having brought the underground grime scene to the masses, Wiley has now made an album very much for the masses. AW
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