South London rapper follows up Mercury-winning debut with modest, unambitious second album in 2012. There was almost not a line you'll read about this explosive new record from Speech Debelle. If you're worried about a deficit of political anger in contemporary British music, listen to "Blaze Up a Fire", the track she leaked in August in response to the UK riots, or "Collapse", which describes with manic intensity the geopolitical road to global anarchy. Debelle is not always easy company and can veer into self-absorption, but the album is refreshingly outspoken and, with help from producer Kwes, musically daring. Speech Debelle has been a prickly proposition since 2009, when she somehow became a less acclaimed Mercury prize winner than M People or Gomez, for her debut album Speech Therapy. This follow-up needed to pack some clout to pick up the pieces of her reputation and, in parts, it does just that. With producer Kwes, she's fashioned a fresh, synthy sound that takes in 80s soft rock and 90s swing, peppered with quirks of British hip-hop. Studio Backpack Rap, Eagle Eye and Collapse offer deft accompaniment to smart rhymes about anger, society and last year's riots. But it's when the focus narrows that it starts to fall down, as the more personal tracks about relationships gone wrong - Elephant, X Marks the Spot - sound flat and familiar, and she's still prone to proselytising. A pleasantly surprising, if patchy, return. - The Guardian 2012