Plan B
The Defamation of Strickland Banks

All-rapping, all-singing, all-guitar-playing Londoner returns with surprisingly soulful second album.

Had Plan B written off as a mere Mike Skinner wannabe? A tough-looking nut with an idea in his noggin that he had something to say? Just another 'urban poet'? Yeah, us too. But Plan B, aka Ben Drew – he knows this. Which is probably why the Londoner's second album is such a starkly different proposition from that disappointingly unoriginal 2006 debut.

And if 'The Defamation of Strickland Banks''s title makes it sound like a concept album, that's because it is. Charting the rise and fall of a fictitious British soul singer, Drew's lyrical vignettes change from stories of success to sadness as his character ends up wrongly imprisoned.

Yet it says a lot that his chosen character Strickland Banks is a soul singer - because for the first time, Drew uses his voice to its full potential. It's a pure, occasionally affecting soul falsetto that mixes well with the upbeat Mark Ronson-esque instrumentation on 'Writing's on the Wall' and 'Love Goes Down', the suave rhymes of 'The Recluse', and the almost Merseybeat jangle of 'Stay Too Long'.

No, Drew hasn't completely abandoned his hip-hop roots, although his schtick was always (arguably badly) combining both. There's a dip – possibly purposeful – during the 'imprisonment' section of the album, and it's not half as innovative or original as you may have been led to believe. Yet overall, who would have thought it? Plan B in shock enjoyable second album – there's nothing defamatory about that.

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