Wiley, Race Against Time

Is Wiley striking while the iron's hot? Or simply reacting to his breakout album from last year, the pop-tinged (and since disowned) See Clear Now? Whatever, he is back with his fourth studio album just seven months since his last. It seems grime's most prolific voice found his enthusiasm curbed by life on a major label and many tracks on this self-released LP serve both as bouts of bravado about Wiley's skills and a rebuttal to those who tried to mould him into a star - "I would have been happy with the one little Rolex tune," he protests on Time Flies By. There's simple pop fun to be found in tracks like The Olly (as in "oy oy oy") and the dancehall-flavoured Too Many Man. And with his former protege Dizzee enjoying No 1s on his own label and British grime currently dominating the charts, it's perhaps no wonder that Wiley's in a rush to keep up.