Themselves - CrownsDown

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4...according to our Phil on Fri 16 Oct, 2009.

I did really like the first couple of Themselves albums... I remember eventually tracking a copy of Them down on vinyl (top album) which made me well happy for a short time. It's still a great album and it's definitely my favourite Anticon thing. Lately the label has struggled to find it's identity releasing a bunch of uninspiring records which weren't that great. So I didn't have massive hopes for Crowns Down but I remained positive just cos I like some of the earlier stuff. It's a patchy album I think.... It's a lot more classically 'Anticon sounding ' than anything I've heard on the label for years (I suppose there's not been too much hip hop on the label for a while). There's a few good tunes on here... 'Oversleeping' is a goodie... The super fast rapping sounds smart. 'Daxstrong' sees Dose One on top form and it's kind of nice to hear that familair voice again. It's been a while. There's a few good ideas on the album and I think if you persevere with it you'll end up really liking it. It's already making a bit more sense on second listen and it's certainly a lot better than the last couple of Subtle records which really haven't impressed me.

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* Seven months after the release of the FREE houdini - the celebrated mixtape that announced Themselves’ return - Doseone and Jel drop CrownsDown, a careful and vicious exhibition of mastered rap tactics and sampling ethics.

* Themselves’ third album proper has been gestating in the gut of this seminal group for some time. It’s both a return to form and a honing of what’s come before (Subtle, cLOUDDEAD, Deep Puddle) - both the opus that these lionhearted two were always meant to make, and the album that their hip-hop-obsessed teenaged selves always hoped to hear.

* On CrownsDown, Themselves hold back nothing, welding brute skill to a concrete set of tracks that represents an essential ten commandments of rap. In preparation, Doseone and Jel revisited their beloved hip-hop collections (Gang Starr, Ultramagnetic MCs, Public Enemy, Saafir) and whittled down the recurring themes that made their favorite records so sturdy.

* Each song on CrownsDown represents one of these archetypes - you’ll find the "don’t bite" song, the diss track, the story rap, the "bootleggers beware" song, and the "don’t fuck with my DJ" jam, among others. In this way, Themselves revisit something classic in order to invent their own future-school entry to the annals.

* Track Listing: 1. Back II Burn 2. Oversleeping 3. The Mark 4. Gangster Of Disbelief 5. Daxstrong 6. You Ain’t It 7. Roman Is As Roman Does 8. Skinning The Drum 9. Deadcatclear II 10. Gold Teeth Will Roll

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