Broken Politics is the fifth studio release for Neneh Cherry but it could be more accurately described as the second album of her new phase.
This new chapter in her style of music began in 2014 with Blank Project, her first album since 1996’s polemic rap album Man.
Cherry is raging against the machine with ‘Shot Gun Shack’ tackling the gun debate through an observation on human nature, her signature taunt soul inflection, ‘Pick up a gun / You’re gonna use it.’ The beats and rhythms accompanying Cherry’s words are subtle.
The production on this album is at odds with the exhilarating visceral energy in her 1989 debut Raw Like Sushi, which demanded a female presence in the rap game. Four Tet fans may recognise the deep tonal stylings as this record, like Blank Project, was produced by Kieran Hebdan.
On the song ‘Synchronised Devotion’ Cherry’s flow is supreme: it’s probably closer to beat poetry than rap per se and Hebdan leaves the rhythm simply accompanying the vocals with sparkling keys incongruously in minor. Rather than enhance the impact of the vocals it distracts with this sound’s inherent pretension.
