Lady Sovereign - Those Were The Days
[Def Jam]

It would appear Lady Sovereign can do no right in the eyes of her UK fanbase. Her debut album Public Warning was met with a lukewarm reception upon its release on her home shores, not only for taking about two years to actually arrive, but because most of the tracks included on the LP had surfaced previously elsewhere on either singles or widely available on music blogs.

Even with the release of her latest single Those Were The Days, SOV is met with little respect. Although the main problem with the Public Warning album was the lack of new content, the track was brand new and exclusive to the release, yet it seems the song is deemed too Americanised to be appreciated by the hardcore following.

It is true that Those Were The Days sees Lady Sovereign moving on from her grimey roots and embracing an old skool US hip hop sound, but where's the harm in that? SOV has spent most of her days touring the States extensively and that's where the majority of her fanbase now lies and as a rapper, her true roots surely lie in the retro hip hop which would eventually lead to where contemporary grime lies today.

Those Were The Days, no matter how unoriginal or however many times you've heard these nostalgic back-in-the-day style tracks, is still fairly good in the sense of a pop-hip-hop offering. The crackled dusty beats and sampled funk wah guitars offer up the laid-back Summery feelgood factor and a mature direction most people wouldn't associate with her.

Lyrically, she looks back to her past of pitbulls on the estate, wearing Naf Naf jeans (remember those?) and messing around with mates in stolen shopping trolleys. Hardly ground-breaking or as humorous as her best moments, but her reminiscing wordplay suits the retro angles of the song perfectly.

Those Were The Days should gain the young rapper a hit single, but as always, the track will go unnoticed and Lady Sovereign's status will remain fairly low-key.

Track Listing:

1. Those Were The Days (watch the Video)
2. Random (Live)
3. Love Me Or Hate Me (Live)
4. Those Were The Days (Sinden Remix)