Music Reviews
BK
ALL SAINTS
6/10
RED FLAG/LONDON RECORDS
Gay men across the country have been beside themselves with excitement through this All Saints comeback malarkey, which has played out roughly how the MKS affair should have gone down. The single ‘One Strike’ was well received, but the album is not a knockout. Then again, perhaps no All Saints album ever has been.
Red Flag is a success, in that it finds All Saints just where we left them — playing true to their own brand of organic urban music. Indeed, in many instances, a vocal entry feels like the return of an old friend. Special praise does go to the epic sounds of ‘One Woman Man’, and ‘This Is A War’. Piano-led ‘Who Hurt Who’ is a beautiful ballad — one of the many tracks which bears the song writing marks of Shaznay Lewis. ‘Ratchet Behaviour’ is the most left-field track on here, a reggae-influenced, alternative number, which could easily have been a Rihanna outtake.