Two years since he last released an album, the born and raised Northampton rapper slowthai has returned with his third studio album, titled UGLY (an acronym for U Gotta Love Yourself). He shows immense growth from his past two albums, shown mostly through the concept and production of UGLY, with the rapper himself saying “This album is completely me – about how I feel and what I want to be… it’s everything I’ve been leading up to.” His past work has typically been associated more with grime and UK hip hop, with Nothing Great About Britain telling the story about his hometown and culture, whilst also criticising the conservative government. This political side of slowthai was further seen on his ‘Bet Ya A £5er’ tour in 2019, as well as at the Mercury Music Awards in the same year, where he was seen wearing merch that signified his hatred towards Boris Johnson, whilst holding a fake decapitated head of Johnson.
His second album, TYRON, is described by him as “what was relevant to me at that moment in time, the present”, with songs like ‘i tried’ and ‘adhd’ illustrating his feelings of not wanting to be alive anymore. UGLY, on the other hand, is about how he feels and what he wants to be , which he has been leading up to with this record. The first single for this album, ‘Selfish’, highlighted a new sound that’s entirely his own: a dark, self-denying hip-hop track, but with a more distinct and apparent punk sound, which has been witnessed to a lesser extent on previous tracks, like ‘Doorman’.
A few weeks before the release of UGLY, slowthai (real-name Tyron Frampton) released the single ‘Feel Good’. Compared to ‘Selfish’, this is a more positive side of the album instrumentally, yet lyrically darker, with the rapper explaining that the song has lines that makes the “repetitive pop that’s not a pop song” be one a person would want to listen too not because they “feel like shit” but because they “feel good” . I was lucky enough to hear this first track live a year ago in Brixton on his ‘Hell is Home’ tour with Deb Never and Knucks as opening acts. This song, as well as the unreleased track ‘Mother’, excited me for what slowthai had to offer in the future, as they both demonstrated different genres that we haven’t heard from the rapper before, especially with ‘Mother’ showcasing a more jungle style of music. With help from Shygirl, ‘Feel Good’ is easily my favourite song from UGLY, and potentially one of my all times by slowthai himself.
The day the album released I was in Budapest for a couple of days, and decided to listen to it for the first time while walking about the city. It was a very exciting first listen hearing new sounds from slowthai with help from producers like Dan Carey, Jockstrap’s Taylor Skye, Ethan P. Flynn, Fontaines D.C. and many more, including his close friend Kwes Darko, who has produced and written for him since the beginning of his discography.
Mix-wise, the project is biting, with the main focus of keeping the vocals slightly louder than the instrumentation itself, sort of like ‘Hacker’ by Death Grips. The opening song ‘Yum’ does this well, discussing the idea of being pulled into two different directions – fatherhood, and growing up & maturing as a person, and then being pulled to friendship and all the things we take part in and indulge in. These ideas are signified originally with lyrics at the beginning that gives off positive assurance: “You are great, you are good, you’re a king, you’re a queen, you’re a genius.” However, the self-loving messages are undercut for the rest of the track with lyrics shifting constantly from Frampton’s so-called useless visit to a therapist, the repetitive use of sex and drugs to keep him happy and “less stressed”, and then ending with heavy breathing and arrhythmic screaming.
Tracks like ‘Torniquet’ demonstrated, at least to me, the influence of artists like Radiohead on slowthai. The track definitely reminded me of songs from Radiohead’s album OK Computer, especially the tracks ‘Subterranean Homesick Alien’ and ‘The Tourist’. It made more sense to me when I came across his own Spotify playlist, showing what helped him create this album; from artists like Elliot Smith, IDLES, King Krule and so on. It is clear to me how hard Tyron worked on this album, as these influences are well known for their outstanding work in both the mainstream and underground music scene.
A track I’ve spent the most time analysing is ‘Fuck It Puppet’, where slowthai refers to the therapist telling him about the theory where you keep telling yourself not to but end up doing it more and more. This song stands out well, being only a minute long, but illustrates such an internal argument without sounding at all cheesy. When looking at the visualiser on YouTube for this track, you can see Tyron holding a puppet that looks exactly like him, making me think this “friend” of his telling him the best way to cheer up is by taking loads of drugs and drinking lots is actually his own mind/voice telling him it’s a good idea, when really he knows it’s a bad one.
UGLY continues with heart-breaking and drenching tracks, including the storytelling of the song ‘Never Again’. It tells the story of an ex-lover now being a mother of two with a partner from the Isle of Sheppey. Throughout the song, the listener starts to understand Tyron’s relationship with this girl was something special, as the conversation shows that his ex still has feelings for him, but is scared to leave her current partner due to fear and being trapped in her new relationship, referring to her being murdered by her partner: “On the news a local girl was murdered by her husband.” The closing-track, ‘25% Club’, delivers a warm instrumental, with sweet melodic rapping about having something in us that is missing that we’re all in search of, for this instance it is the question “why am I here?” that we are never going to understand; it’s always going to be 25% missing. In a way, it feels like a continuation of “feel away.”
Overall, slowthai takes an unexpected turn on UGLY, replacing his signature rap genre with something more noisy and alternative. It is clear that this is the most personal he has ever been compared to his past work, with songs resolving around self-love and depression. He has exceeded my expectations with this album by masterfully embracing this new sound to represent a darker theme than his previous albums, and I’m excited to see what he has in store for his rumoured deluxe of his third studio album.
Rating: 9/10
