Dizzee Rascal -Maths + English

As most people should realise by now, I am more than a little bit Gangsta. By this I mean if Gangsta means that I am a white middle aged man variously with or without a beard who can often be found on a street where there is a record shop. So I suspect not gangsta at all really, and not street either or any of the current tags that are applied, I am a bit grime though.

So this was Dizzee Rascal’s third album, released in 2007 and spawning three singles, the first of which was Sirens, above. I was in a used record shop above an antiques centre in Stratford Upon Avon and it was in the ‘reduced’ box (Same shop I bought ‘The Raconteurs’ album the other day). It seemed one not to leave there to me, so I didn’t. The album was one of the 12 nominees for the 2007 Mercury Prize, which ultimately went to Klaxons‘ album Myths of the Near Future, hmmmm, I’m tempted to……… yup, let’s do it, let’s look at those 12 nominees:

Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford – Basquiat Strings
Bat for Lashes – Fur and Gold
Dizzee Rascal – Maths + English
Maps – We Can Create
New Young Pony Club – Fantastic Playroom
Fionn Regan – The End of History
Jamie T – Panic Prevention
The View – Hats Off to the Buskers
Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
Young Knives – Voices of Animals and Men

I’m not saying Dizzee  Rascal should have won, but including Maths + English I can see three albums that I think are better than the winner. Nothing against The Klaxons, it was just an odd choice of winner from my perspective.

So I will probably get a copy of the two albums before this now because I do rather like Dizzee, or Mr. Rascal as he insists I call him. He did something with Robbie Williams at some point, that worries me a bit as I’m not a fan of Williams, but I haven’t listened to that so won’t comment. Below is the third and final single from the album.

Tracklist