Moz once sang ‘That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore’ but G.L.C are here to disprove the doubters and show that there is still plenty of musical mileage in casting a satirical eye across the underbelly of British society and tut-tutting at the cultural choices of the nation’s underclass.
‘Safe As Fuck’ is the follow-up to their debut ‘Greatest Hits’ (which managed to shift 250,000 units in the UK alone) and more or less replicates the Taff Hip Hop/R ‘n’ B formula that worked so well for them last year. The trouble for G.L.C is that issues of binge-drinking, drugs and all things CHAV are now well established talking points in the public psyche, with everyone from grannies at Bluewater Shopping Centres to squeaking journalists in search of a TV career at the expense of professional credibility having an opinion.
Can G.L.C bring some fresh perspective? And more importantly can they be funny about it?
Well yes and no, but mainly no. Of the stuff that is good ‘Bad Boy Limp’ is the best of the bunch, a withering look at the ‘I’ve sustained a drive-by shooting injury’ limp of white boys in Britain’s urban spaces trying to be black gangsters from the L.A streets; the joke being that G.L.C advise a small claims court solution for said injury. ‘R ‘n’ B’ raises a titter but is really ‘You Knows I Love You Baby’ MkII while the use of the vocoder on ‘Monkey Love’ (a staple of Daft Punk’s music or that godawful ‘Believe’ track by Cher) is more of a joke rather than the actual notion of shagging a primate. The remainder of tracks seem tired and laboured: a song about shagging your girlfriend’s sister (‘Sister’) and the net effects on the body of smoking dope (physical on ‘HRT’, mental on ‘Short Term’ and psychological on ‘Paranoia’) are tiresomely played out. Ironic or not, ‘Shit Song’ is just a shit song.
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I soon realise I’m enjoying spotting the samples - Grange Hill theme tune, ‘Walking In The Air’ etc. – than actually listening to most of the lyrics.
G.L.C. were always nothing more than a novelty act who were almost immediately guilty of flogging a dead horse. But now they’re a one-trick pony without a prank. All their moves and sounds are based on stereotypes and as such had only a limited time-frame (probably the first 3 months in 2004) where their observations ran ahead of the collective knowledge of a wider audience. It’s autumn 2005 and the audience is as savvy as G.L.C. in these matters and wise to the manner of the band’s message there is nowhere else for them to go.
It was funny for a while but now it’s time to take the needle off the record.
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