Album Review: Spit Syndicate - Sunday Gentlemen

Spit Syndicate have emerged with their third album, Sunday Gentlemen. It's a solid effort packed with great production (largely courtesy of Horrorshow's Adit) and some catchy rhymes, but it doesn't quite elevate MCs Nick Lupi and Jimmy Nice to that top tier of hip hop prowess that they seek (and, three albums in, should probably have attained).

The disappointing thing about Sunday Gentlemen is how little we learn about Spit Syndicate from listening to it. The album has been purportedly crafted in the vein of Irving Wallace's personal writing – a creative endeavour crafted on days off, fitted in around the demands of work, showcasing a unique point of view. However, Sunday Gentlemen is riddled with sweeping generalisations and contradictions – on Kill That Noise, Nick Lupi takes a pro-feminist stance and demands an end to slut-shaming, yet unblinkingly refers to women as “pussy”, a dehumanised collective, on opener Amazing. There are lyrics about how busy and demanding the recent years have been for them – music, touring, studying and, of course, juggling all that pussy – but then they'll claim that they'd never say they'd been struggling (despite the previous four bars of rhymes).

Lupi and Nice are certainly talented. They may not have the most impeccable flow in the game, but they pack a lot of determination and plenty of guts, and they certainly have an ear for listener-friendly beats and great hooks. However, it's been three albums, and it's still unclear exactly where Spit Syndicate's passions lie. They seem caught between an indie sensibility and old-school hip hop posturing, and as a result, Sunday Gentlemen is only the sum of its parts – it doesn't quite manage to be something more.