Album Review: Cooly G - Playin Me

Cooly G
Playin Me
Review: Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It

Vocalist and producer Cooly G (Merrisa Campbell) made her mark a few years ago as a rising star in the UK funky scene, but has since evolved into a multi-faceted producer, imbuing her debut for the Hyperdub label with a cross-genre mashup of funky, grime, 2-step, techno, and R&B. The album has a overall dubby feel, hearkening back to neo-soul albums from Soul II Soul, Massive Attack, and Sade, but with a more modern/electronic sheen. While not explicitly noted as such, Playin Me feels like a breakup album, full of melancholic moments, whispered vocals, incriminations, doubts, and fears. Just when you think a happy moment appears, the hurt appears again to plunge back down into the darkness.

Beginning with the shifting, retro-like "He Said I Said," sputtering drum programs and looped guitars echo in and out of the mix setting the tone for the record, Cooly G haunted by memories of her lover.



"Come Into My Room" merges dusky vocals, piano, and skying electronics, showing a letting down of her guard, wanting to experience love again.



"Good Times" descends again into a bleak, dark drone of low synth pulses over a muted 2-step beat, sling-shotting into the skittering beats and come-ons of "Sunshine," a tempered take on the make-out jam. But throughout, there is always that spectre of the love gone bad; never allowing for any true happiness. Title track "Playin Me" bounces tattered beats and rim shots over clipped vocal samples.



Although Playin Me is not a traditional pop record in the normal sense, there is a nod to something more mainstream in Cooly G's cover of Coldplay's "Trouble," which fits in perfectly with the mood of the album, with its lyrics of being in "a spiderweb/and I'm caught in the middle." The original's lovely melancholy transferring well into a clattering 2-step beat. But the remainder of the record has a tense, foreboding feel to it, full of dense drum programming and icy keyboards. The hallucinatory opening of "Is It Gone" giving way to a cacophony of stuttering drum programs. "What Airtime" blasting chilly waves of frosty synths over almost chanted vocals. These moments are only broken up occasionally, as with the clonky drums and martial air of "It's Serious."



Or with final track "Up In My Head" providing a respite from the tension with a bed of warm synths over a soft, feminine vocal from Cooly G.



Playin Me is a solid debut from Cooly G that highlights her obvious producer chops while only suffering slightly from some of the tracks sounding tonally similar. A little more variation would have made a lot of these tracks stand out more. But is a minor quibble about an artist with a good future ahead of her.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.