Professor Green: At Your Inconvenience – review

Green's commercially successful debut Alive Till I'm Dead wasn't without its more pensive narratives, and it's in this direction that Hackney battle-rapper-cum-popstar takes his followup. There's the same assortment of polished urban pop beats and the same famous borrow, this time a not unlikable lift from the Pixies' Where Is My Mind?, but Green abandons the cheeky self-deprecating humour and witty braggadocio of his earlier hit singles for unconcealed angst, chewing at his turbulent past and bemoaning the pressures of fame. The introspection pays off on tracks such as Forever Falling, but lead single Read All About It feels cloying. It's also difficult to reconcile Green's more crass verses with his sentimental numbers; Astronaut's tale of innocent rape victim turned junkie sits uncomfortably next to all the phallus jokes and Eminem-style sadism of songs such as Into the Ground. It's a heavy, ambivalent confessional, but Green's precocious personality and distinctive flow manage to keep it fired up.