Urban Clearway: Urban Clearway
By: Sean Leonard
Urban Clearway's self-titled debut album sounds like a sound in process. In places the album really works, such as the dark and political Freedom, "there's no such thing as freedom, it's just a word we wanna believe in". Track five Heaven makes me think of early Tricky, with some nice beat programming and favourable vocals of the female member of this three-piece. In fact I'd go as far to say as too much of this album reminds you of that whole Tricky, Massive Attack Bristol sound. Although I love some of the beats and production, the effects over vocals on tracks such Migraine are made to sound like 3D's dark lingering harmonic type ramblings. With 13-tracks it's clear that Urban Clearway have ideas aplenty, but they're definitely a few tracks that don't need to be here like Corporation Property and, City Lights, where the lyrics need scrapping (bit harsh but true). I'd like to hear more of these guys in a year or so because there's definitely talent to build on with a bit more maturity.
(3/5)