Search - Lady Sovereign :: Jigsaw

Lady Sovereign goes through growing pains

lain4ever | Los Angeles, CA | 04/18/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"With "Jigsaw," listeners can tell that Lady Sovereign's still a little lost as to what kind of music she wants to make.



Lady Sovereign has always dangerously straddled the line between rap and dance club music. "Jigsaw" marks a change of pace, in which the British rap star decided to switch to M.I.A. style rap and dance music.



But Lady Sovereign is not exactly as original or as fresh as M.I.A. Sure, her first song is a hot tune with hard-hitting club beats and squeeking electronic sounds. Sovereign sounds pretty sexy singing in a low alto "I'm weird and you're weird/Let's be mates."



Her next song, however, is a little flat. She raps to some really cheap synthesizer sample of "Close To Me." And with weird lyrics such as "And when the beat went on, and it really ain't f***in' hot enough/You should've seen me runnin' out the studio like Forrest Gump", she really just doesn't do her original sample justice.



Sometimes Sov tries to sing like a diva, as in the title track "Jigsaw," but it doesn't work. Her vocal work is decent at best, but it sounds so out of place with the cheap rock beat and the dull string ensemble in the background.



Finally, listeners will get really tired of her cheesy vocal effects. It's tiring to listen to Sov say "doin' it" with that scratchy low vocoder effect for the twenty-umpteenth time in "I Got You Dancing."



It's a shame, because she has quite a lot to say in her album. There's nothing more irresistable that her song "Pennies," in which she sings "How many pennies have been gone from me?" to a bumping dance beat and some funky wah-wah synthesizers.



Still, Sov's album sounds decent for a rap/dance album. Sure, Sov is definitely no M.I.A., but she still sounds reasonably cool and sexy on "Jigsaw." She just doesn't sound great."

You be the judge

~Z~ | 06/03/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Lady Sovereign has her own hip-hop-synth-pop-electro sound. Listening to the first three tracks (Let's Be Mates, So Human and Jigsaw) I was able to interpret that her lyrics was representing her own personal life with the whirlwinds of fame and the music business. She sounds like the "wrong side of the tracks" girl that is trying to take charge of her own life. She offers a variety of genres from rap, pop, new-wave, hip-hop and electro pop/dance throughout this album. That's a lot of variety! Her quirky raps and wordplay gives her music an uplift beat to them. Now there are some songs that are just "skippable" like Food Play and I Got the Goods but overall I enjoyed this CD. Somewhat disappointed though that there are only 10 songs with a total playing time of 37 minutes. Lady Sovereign I believe experiments with much of the music on this album because she is just trying to find out who she really is and what she really wants. All in all she is just having fun and I would recommend this CD so you can judge it for yourself."

Lady Sovereign: Jigsaw

SpiritChild | Amherst, MA United States | 06/04/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"For her age (24), Lady Sovereign has already accomplished allot in her career. Despite being young, white, and British, Sovereign is the first foreign female artist signed by Def-Jam records. Jigsaw is her second album.



Sovereign definitely has a different sound than most American rappers. Her sound is a little poppy (somewhat like the Veronicas), a little techno, and of course a little hip-hop. Her newest Album, Jigsaw is listenable, but I found it a bit stale by track 4. The problem is that her songs all kinda sound the same. My favorite tracks are 2 (So Human)and 7 (Guitar), which also seem to be the most distinctive tracks on the album.



In sum, Jigsaw is listenable and has some good songs for dancing, but I wouldn't pay more that 8 dollars for it."