Treddin' On Thin Ice

Still, there's much to recommend here: the production is a triumph of expertly-applied minimalism, skeletal Playstation beats meshing neatly with retro synthesiser bass and warped oriental strings. Meanwhile, Wiley's natural propensity towards melancholy is neatly balanced by a handful of genuinely hilarious tracks that poke fun at himself, his peers and the scene: try the genre-defining "Wot Do U Call It?" ("Garage?/ Urban?/ Two-step?"), frisky money-making anthem "Pies", and "Goin' Mad"--a blend of conversational narrative and genuinely-affecting emotion, delivered in a broad Cockney geezer accent, that's reminiscent of the Streets. --Louis Pattison