Album Review: Outasight - Nights Like These

The imposition of major record labels upon the creative process for the purpose of pleasing stakeholders is so entrenched it has now become almost an irrelevancy. 'Industry rule number 4080' they used to call it. However, the rise of the mixtape album (in hip hop music) has turned the spotlight on this process like never before; artists garnering a devoted following on the back of free internet albums only to disappoint with a washed-out major label 'official' release.

The latest victim is singer-rapper-songwriter Outasight. On mixtapes Further and Never Say Never, the New Yorker achieved the near-impossible, successfully transcending the divide between hip hop and rock-pop, effortlessly blending rhyming and singing with synthesised beats and live instrumentation. Enter Warner Brothers, who throw a dance beat up under there and roughly shove him into the mainstream. First single Tonight Is The Night has been the perfect vehicle for introducing Outasight to the FM dial, a mix of big-room beats and catchy hooks, and almost the entire second half of Nights Like These is devoted to this sound.

Among these dance-lite tracks, Under The Lights stands out as its slower 4/4s morph into ultra-polished drum'n'bass, a rare moment of 'experimentation'. However, despite its presentation and often shallow, hedonistic nature, the old Outasight can still be heard in the first half of the set, with Shine, I'll Drink To That and Tubthumpin', the three most successful excursions back to former glories. Like seeing your old partner going out with an absolute dickhead, Nights Like These may not be the real Outasight yet it remains Outasight and hopefully gives the man the opportunity to gain more creative control over his future projects.