The Daily Spin, October 25
MNEK | Language
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite songs from each album right here.
Album: Language (2018)
Artist: MNEK
Link:
Few albums have left me quite so confused on my feelings regarding them as this one - hyper-talented producer MNEK’s debut pulls so many pieces from other standout RnB and electropop standouts, yet it all comes together without a lot of the shine and polish that I would have expected from such a heralded talent.
I can’t tell if it’s just personal preference or not - and that’s always a disclaimer, I suppose - but for an artist that derives sound from guys like Years & Years, dvsn, and Jax Jones, his debut lacks a lot of that snappiness that their respective works do - it’s the high-energy soprano sound of Years & Years with dvsn’s pared-down, sparse production - and that just doesn’t work.
Albums need a driving force behind them to sustain themselves, and MNEK lacks that throughout Language. It really feels like he’s best suited to be a feature or a collaborator - see his song with Joel Corry, for example, or his appearances on works by Sigala, Years & Years, and Stormzy.
As a collection of club tunes, I could see this having a bit more push, but in terms of its stature as an album, I’m left pretty disappointed.
Rating: 6.8/10
Best Tracks: Crazy World
Worst Tracks: Body; Tongue