Devlin: A Moving Picture – review

Dagenham's James Devlin follows up his 2010 debut Blood, Sweat and Beers with an album still stuck on punning but looking to stake claim on fresh territories, too. As an MC, he pairs a grimy flow with a barrage of disdain for his musical peers, his street rivals and the powers that be. The patter doesn't always feel original nor particularly self-aware ("You ain't from the street, you spit shit on funky house," he chides on So Cold, shortly before performing a duet with Ed Sheeran). What it does feel, though, is sincere. This is true, both in its angry moments and its rarer more poignant ones, and it sounds like someone growing into themselves. It's a quality that lingers, and it is often assisted by some punchy production. Big, old-school breakbeats are overlaid with electro hooks, a combination used to best effect on the Raf Riley-produced Love Cards. Devlin might yet look to draft in some outside help with his love of bad puns, the self-applied moniker Jim Laden being first among equals.