Speech Debelle: Freedom of Speech – review

Speech Debelle has been a prickly proposition since 2009, when she somehow became a less acclaimed Mercury prize winner than M People or Gomez, for her debut album Speech Therapy. This follow-up needed to pack some clout to pick up the pieces of her reputation and, in parts, it does just that. With producer Kwes, she's fashioned a fresh, synthy sound that takes in 80s soft rock and 90s swing, peppered with quirks of British hip-hop. Studio Backpack Rap, Eagle Eye and Collapse offer deft accompaniment to smart rhymes about anger, society and last year's riots. But it's when the focus narrows that it starts to fall down, as the more personal tracks about relationships gone wrong – Elephant, X Marks the Spot – sound flat and familiar, and she's still prone to proselytising. A pleasantly surprising, if patchy, return.