CD Review - Lady Sovereign - Jigsaw

Lady Sovereign – Jigsaw – Midget Records


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“Jigsaw”, the most recent effort from Lady Sovereign, a self-proclaimed midget, is a record that is trying to keep up with the likes of Britney’s “Circus” and Lady Gaga’s “The Fame.” What separates Lady Sovereign from these pop icons, is the fact that in a few of her songs, she spits some mad rhymes. From the age of 14, Lady Soverign has been refining her craft, she has later worked with the likes of Jay-Z, Pharell Williams, and toured with Gwen Stefani and Metric. Coming in at a meager five feet and one inch, Lady Sovereign’s physical stature doesn’t take away from her performance on the mic.

Many of the tracks on Jigsaw are the highly produced, and highly stylized songs with lots of technical effects like in “Bang Bang” and “Let’s Be Mates.” The recent single, “I Got You On The Dance Floor,” doesn’t exactly make me want to get up and dance, but it wouldn’t cause me to make a b-line from the floor to the bar. It comes across as one of those songs you’d never notice was playing when you were out enjoying the club.

I was expecting most of the CD to be the same way, but I was pleasantly surprised when Lady Sovereign stops rapping, and starts to sing more melodically. On tracks like “So Human” and the title track “Jigsaw,” you get a good sense of the musical talent that Lady Sovereign possesses.

Unfortunately, the one song that will most likely be remembered on this CD is entitled “Food Play,” which starts with “This one is for the lovers out there/for those who like their food to enhance their mood for love,” in a typical low, Barry White like voice. But it gets worse from there, a song devoted entirely to food and sex. Which consists of a chorus which sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks took over the Sunday Night Sex Show with Dr. Sue. The high pitched voices are backed with a vocal track recorded normally, which I think would have sounded better by itself.

Lady Sovereign puts out a valiant effort to crack into the rap/pop genre, but in this reviews opinion, she will have a hard time breaking into the American music world unless her CDs start supplying us with a British-English/American-English translator so we can figure out what she’s saying most of the time.