You could be forgiven for thinking that Mr Hudson, the boy from North London with one underachieving album under his belt, is just another challenge for the ever growing ego of Kayne West. Having conquered the hip-hop world, the pop world and the celebrity world there appears little left in the music world for Mr West to dominate. And indeed it’s very likely that West and his oversized sense of self worth probably thinks the same thing. The trouble is – and it has undoubtedly been said many times before – he all too often produces music that means that the only thing we can criticise the man over is his big head. It’s often good, and if it’s not its very good.
So here the thought to get over is that Kayne West has taken a British white boy, who is quite cool, but not very cool, and turned him into one of the rising stars of the pop world in 2009. The point is pushed to the point that the first single from the album ‘Supernova’ is largely a duet between the two, and that leading up to the album’s release, much of the initial press and interviews with Mr Hudson has been with said mentor. However, on the album West makes a surprisingly minimal appearance. Other than opener ‘Supernova’, he guests one verse on ‘Anyone But Him’; taking the role of the ‘Him’ in question.
What this could leave is an album that feels like it came from an Englishman trying to make slick US pop, while on previous album ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ – the album that first caught Kayne West’s attention – it came from an Englishman making pop inspired by his US counterparts. In many cases the sound works however, ‘Supernova’ for example, has already proven its chart topping possibilities. Where the album really succeeds however, is right in the middle of the album with the collection of songs ‘Instant Messenger’, ‘There Will Be Tears’, ‘Stiff Upper Lip’ and ‘Central Park’ detailing the demise of a strained long-distance relationship. Once the initial sheen of the first two singles (the second being ‘White Lies’), the beats become more inventive and original, the instrumentation strays further than the vocoder-synth-pop that we have come to expect from a West production, which ultimately should prove to be a winning formula. However, in far too many cases the songs are let down by Mr Hudson’s insistence on using child-like rhymes (the awful first lyric to ‘There Will Be Tears’ is “Oh no, I stubbed my toe”), the attempts at heartfelt sentiment which fall flat, such as the pain of his texts not getting through to a loved one on ‘Instant Messenger’, or by the way that it’s all too ostensibly clear that Mr Hudson is from England; from the referencing of black cabs, to overusing the Eastenders-term-of-endearment “love” to even complaining about losing his stiff upper lip.
Of course, ‘Straight, No Chaser’ is a pop album, and people don’t expect much other than a nice melody from a pop album. And in this way it delivers perfectly, it’s just that it’s very close to being so much better. There are signs that Mr Hudson has clear talent in production, songwriting and pushing his sound toward different areas of pop, such as the 80s power ballad inspired ‘Knew We Were in Trouble’ to the Beatles-esque ‘Lift Your Head’. Following on from his work on Kayne West’s ‘808 and Heartbreaks’ which was a pop record which had a genuine sincerity to it, it feels that Mr Hudson has just let the ball slip slightly. Undoubtedly the album will do well, as it sticks in your head, and that’s what the public want. Ultimately however, it is a case of can do better.
5/10, Out Now
Words by David Drummond
