Album Review: Emperor's Nightingale by Stereo MC's

In their heyday, when they were the darlings of international hip-hop and really the first significant British rap artists, the Stereo MC's found themselves in rarefied company, sharing stages with everyone from U2 and Living Colour to Jane's Addiction and De La Soul. But it's not 1993 anymore, and over the years the Stereo MC's have gradually shrugged off the strictures of hip-hop orthodoxy and become a genuine pop group. On Emperor's Nightingale their sound is still informed by their hip-hop past, but much more so by their years of remixing and exploring other beat-based genres.

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Stereo MCs. The very name evokes a bygone era, if it evokes anything at all. Baggy pants, “Baggy” music, EMF and Jesus Jones. Those were the big trends in English indie music when Stereo MCs’ big hit, Connected, was released. That album’s success belied the fact Stereo MCs were the one-and ….

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With almost two decades separating justifiable 90s classic Connected and new album Emperor’s Nightingale, London-based dancefloor merchants Stereo MCs have accumulated an output that’s best described as… patchy. The long-awaited follow-up to 1992’s Connected came in the form of the mildly successful Deep Down and Dirty in 2001, and then came the frankly risible Paradise in 2005. In the slump of form that’s in evidence there, you might expect Emperor’s Nightingale to be rather ignorable.

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