Natty: Man Like I

Elly Roberts reviews

Natty: Man Like I
Distributed by
Atlantic RecordsCover

  • Released: August 2008
  • Rating: 4/10
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Male version of buddies Adele, and Lily Allen.

Below all the shiny production, the 24-year-old North Londoner’s debut lacksany major invention of the genre, reggae.

By day, Natty was a studio engineer at Sphere Studios in Battersea whohad dreams of making it big.

The debut single, July, has proved popular with significant airtimeon BBC Radio 2 – nothing else matches it. Natty’s influences are wide rangingfrom Bob Marley to Marvin Gaye to Neil Young, not that you’d know it fromthis collection.

Combining key elements of reggae – Adele/Lily Allen style, he throws in subtlecomponents of hip hop too. Much of Man Like I is geared towards radiofriendliness, but ultimately unchallenging.


It is however an easy listening album, though most of it is quite forgettable.It major problem is, there aren’t enough good quality songs. Its best bits arethe jaunty and simple Hey Man, and should he edit a swear word, wouldmake an excellent next single. The Ska-styled She Loves Me sees himreally hitting his stride, whereas the stripped-back ballad Revolutionworks beautifully because of its simplicity.

Bedroom Eyes takes some time to get going but it’s a pretty cool trackwith some neat direction changes.

Then there’s the middling songs such a beat-heavy Cold Town and stutteringand limpless Stoned On You.

Natty’s default button is getting bogged down in dire songs such a wanderingBurn This Place Down which is self indulgent in the extreme. There’sa knack of making this kind of track work, which a fledgling Natty hasn’tcracked yet.

On Last Night he’s trying too hard to do a Lily Allen, his chum, anddull closer Say Bye Bye could have been left on the cutting room floor.

File under: Needs to do better.

Weblinks:nattymusic.com /myspace.com/natty4d


The full list of tracks included are :

1. July
2. Cold Town
3. Stoned On You
4. Revolution
5. Badman
6. Burn Down This Place
7. Hey Man
8. Bedroom Eyes
9. Last Night
10. Coloured Souls
11. Say Bye Bye

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