You can produce statistics to prove anything these days, 57% of Americans know that. Well, this American outfit uses soulful Destiny’s Child backing to coax along the authoritative, news-reading sounding female narrative, uncovering the bare truth in ‘Facts of Life’. With pragmatism and without judgement we are informed that;

“Everyday 22 newborn babies will be given to the wrong parents……
  The average person laughs 13 times a day
  Elvis was originally blonde
  The average age of first intercourse is 15 and a half years old.”

Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)’ is shaken up and given a sharper, non-patronising touch to change the way you look at life. This is just for starters, as the mystical outfit then focuses its cogency on single subjects, refeering the battle of the sexes in ‘Man Woman’ and extolling the merits of a positive outlook through ‘Inhale Positivity’. Lazy-B filters their philosophical disillusionment with life through a variety of cogent narratives. The most captivating being the swiftly delivered US comic style, condemnation of our judgemental society and is stroked along by an undercurrent of soulful backing in “Underwear Goes’;

“I walked behind this guy the other day, a homeless guy asked him for money.
 He looks right at the homeless guy, he goes; why don’t you get a job, you bum?
 People always say to that to homeless guys; get a job, like it’s always that easy,
this homeless guy was wearing his underwear outside his pants. I’m guessing his résumé ain’t all up to date. I’m predicting some problems during the interview process. I’m pretty sure that even MacDonald’s has an underwear go inside the pants policy, not that they enforce it that strictly, but technically, I’m sure it’s on the books.’

For the lyrics lovers out there this album is a feast for the most voracious, so those who found The Streets’ now watered-down lyrical exposing tough to swallow, will welcome this barrage of cutting insight warmly. ‘The Manual’ takes you through a step-by-step guide, enabling you to be able to craft the perfect joint, however they clearly state that it is entirely up to you what you do with it. These expansive Americans have found away to push at the ever reclining boundaries of music, with the full force of a lyrical battering ram that is bound together by unobtrusive, but highly effective lounge-touching backing.

David Adair