Release Date: Jul 25, 2006
Genre(s): Rock, Alternative
Record label: Nonesuch / Rough Trade
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Unless you go strictly by the lyrics and/or the circumstances, the third and fourth Scritti Politti comeback albums are not very dissimilar. They're principally bright-colored guitar pop albums, though 2006's White Bread Black Beer features neither the guest MCs nor the deeply hip-hop-rooted arrangements that speckled 1999's Anomie & Bonhomie. Beneath that, everything on White Bread Black Beer was written and played by Green Gartside at his house, and the sleeve design of the album is credited in part to an Alys Gartside.
Scritti Politti’s history has been retold so often lately that it’s become a music-fan brainwash mantra: leader Green Gartside as the dedicated Marxist; Gartside gets black music; Gartside goes deconstructionist; Gartside discovers hip hop. With each step down the chain, Gartside loses his commitment to any ‘science of history’; adrift within endless deferral of meaning, Scritti songs became lexical mazes. But by the time of 1999’s Anomie and Bonhomie, most listeners had lost faith, too.
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