Amanda Blank

I really can't make my mind up about her new single. Anyone who's heard Spank Rock's crazymazing debut LP Yoyoyoyoyo (obscure 2005 hip-hop reference - SHOOT ME), specifically 'Bump', will know how totally and utterly brilliant a rapper she can be. That part when she speeds up about 2 minutes from the end leaves even Spank himself for dead, and she's deliciously filthy the whole way through.

If you're ready to step
Cos' I'm a throw down kinda bitch
I don't play around
See I cut the fuck up
And I knock the fuck down

Agreed.

She hasn't actually done much since then, though, which is why I was very pleased to hear about the first actual single from an actual album actually 'Might Like You Better'. Apparently it uses a refrain from an old track, but it's either before my time or I'm behind my time. I can't get my head around it much. The production's good, glitchy and slightly apathetic and thus apt - and how catchy the synth lead is cancels out how totally fucking annoying it could be. But Amanda herself seems a bit bored. The line the whole track is built on is delivered with all the sex appeal of a woman who has just had a c-section, and her rhymes, rather than the staggering and staggeringly dirty cat-hiss of '05, now sound forced - after making her name ploughing one lyrical furrow, it seems Blank is unable, unwilling or afraid to stray beyond the closeted niche she has inhabited up to this point. It gets by and would do well in a club, and like I said, it's damn catchy, but one gets the feeling there's a whole lot more she could give if only she moved from the (admittedly rather restrained) female rap sterotype.

Also, this awesome dude is having an exhibition at the Tate which ends on my birthday. I missed his last London one, I'm determined not to do the same this time around;

Remind me?

Kay thanks, bye

xxX