Emmanuel - 'D'Illusions Of Grandeur' (Little League) Released 06/02/06

A melting pot of talents and contributors, 'D'Illusions Of Grandeur' is the product of twenty years of perseverance from Colin Emmanuel aka C Swing, top producer amongst the likes of Jamelia, Estelle and more surprisingly The Beta Band. Calling in on his musical friends, 'D'Illusions Of Grandeur' is described as being a show case of the crème de la crème of British - not urban - Black music. This album isn't really sure what it is, because when you whack it on trusty itunes, its choice of genre hops to latin. But this is about as latin as a bottle of Tesco Value tequila.

The best way to describe this album on a whole is that it's a cross between driving through a dull London ghetto mashed with beats likely to be heard blaring from a questionable street market in France mixed with a 'trying-too-hard-to-be-trendy' over priced wine bar. Messy, right? Mostly it’s sadly just background noise that fades into nothingness.

There are odd dribs and drabs that vaguely stand out. 'Getaway' sounds strangely like Girls Aloud in a good way, but is let down a bit by all too formulaic lyrics about love and relationships (yawn) sung with formulaic vocals. Pretty predictable and lazy. The track ends with a cringe-worthy Byker Grove credits style laugh. Terri Walker makes an appearance with 'Flirtin''. The only recognisable name to boost the credibility of the album. But deservedly so, as the song ain’t all that bad. Upbeat and svelte. While 'Pretend' by Nate James sounds like boyband Blue with soul.

This is urban by numbers, despite its reluctance to be. Its like 2+2. Simple, easy and everyone can do it - and in this case, everyone has already done it before.