Friday, January 18, 2013

Boom Goes the Scritti Politti

Mrs. LTL! will be home soon. Time to shelve the Scritti Politti, but let's squeeze in one more. I'm going straight to one of the great comebacks in music. In 1999, Scritti Politti released 'Anomie & Bonhomie' with little fanfare. There were a handful of Green Gartside sightings in the ensuing years, but there wouldn't be a full-length album again until 2006.

It was a homecoming of sorts. Scritti Politti returned to Rough Trade for the first time since the debut album in 1982. The new music was certainly a reflection of those early days. The slick production of the Virgin years was replaced with a more lo-fi and stripped-down approach. "The Boom Boom Bap," the only single from 'White Bread Black Beer,' would have fit in nicely on 'Songs to Remember' nearly a quarter century earlier. The album was critically acclaimed and nominated for a Mercury Music Award.

Here is the lone single. In a sign of the times, the song didn't chart. By 2006, however, that wasn't exactly a sign of success anyway, was it? As far as I can tell, the two songs that accompanied the "The Boom Boom Bap" were previously unreleased. Neither song can be called "pop," but I think you will find "The Last Time I Looked" an interesting take on both kinds of music, country and western. I won't comment on the last song except to identify the rapper as Skillz.

Scritti Politti - The Boom Boom Bap (mp3)
Scritti Politti - The Last Time I Looked (mp3)
Scritti Politti - Hands Up (mp3)

4 comments:

Echorich said...

Anomie & Bonhomie confused me and I really never got into it. But White Bread, Black Beer was sublime! I'm sure he has many more pieces of music buzzing around in his genius head and they will eventually make their way out and into a studio for recording, contemplation, re-recording and eventually release. I'm certainly looking forward to them...

Brian said...

You and me both, Echorich. I never really expected something like White Bread. I would love to be surprised again.

Anonymous said...

hands up is missing

niluvian said...

Another big WBBB fan here. Also...I (and from what I can tell, many others) was confused by Anomie & Bonhomie when it came out, but when I played the Absolute compilation the tracks from that one really jumped out at me, so I went back to the album and the vast majority of it sounds fantastic now. Like it's-become-my-second-favorite-SP-album level of fantastic. I think it was one of those that was a little ahead of its time.