Man Like I (2008)
12 tracks, 44 minutes
Spotify ∙ iTunes
Is there a reason why more music invokes the feelings of summer than any other season? Maybe that’s even just me – is that just me? There is some music that feels wintery (aside from just Christmassy stuff), and very little that feels like spring or autumn, but there’s loads of summery sounding music. I wonder why that is.
As you’ll guess, I reckon Natty’s Man Like I is a great summer record. It has the sound of a lazy day in the park with some tinnies and a Frisbee. Get this album blaring out of a little speaker and annoy everyone around you, perfect. Not sure what it is about this album that has that vibe to it, either. I mean, other than the very first track ‘July’, an ode to a wonderful month (course it is – that’s when I was born!), admittedly that is explicitly summery, but the rest aren’t as thematically obvious.
It’s essentially just a lovely, quite poppy album of reggae with little hints of hip-hop here and there. It’s also lightly twee in a way quite a lot of late-2000s music was, but it doesn’t take itself overly seriously either. The whole thing has this really chill, acoustic thing going on, even though it’s not even acoustic. A lot of it is based around Natty’s acoustic guitar and voice and builds up from that point, but they’ve done a great job of retaining the same ambience. Through all the drums and bass, electric guitars, keys, backing vocals and all sorts of production bits and bobs, it’s still like he’s just strumming on his acoustic guitar in cool company.
Summer is rolling in, so next time that breeze becomes warm and languid and there’s an aroma of freshly mown (or smoked) grass in the air, crack this one out and keep the sun in the sky all day long.
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