Album Review: Plan B - The Defamation of Strickland Banks (4.5/5)

Persona-based concept albums are often a mistake (think Garth Brooks' Chris Gaines project), as well as blatant attempts to perform in a different genre (Brooks again, as well as Lil Wayne's recent "rock" album). Yet heretofore British rapper Plan B's second album, The Defamation of Strickland Banks succeeds on both accounts, dropping the hip-hop artist into the shoes of soul singer Strickland Banks and telling the story of how he goes to prison for a crime he did not commit.

The revival of '60s soul has been a hot trend in British pop ever since Amy Winehouse struck gold with it in 2006, and Plan B gives a pretty decent Motown impersonation, particularly on the first two tracks. "Love Goes Down" opens gently with strings and guitar before building up the old soul sound with horns on the chorus. "Writing's on the Wall" has a bouncier melody at times quite similar to The Source and Candi Staton's "You Got the Love." While the opening tracks are straight up old-fashioned, "Stay Too Long" and "She Said," the album's first two singles, incorporate more modern touches, namely bits of rap. "Stay Too Long" is hard-hitting garage rock, while "She Said" is the album's most effective pop song.

The prison aspect of the story starts with "Welcome to Hell" and proceeds through the rest of the album. Lyrically, the album leans a bit too much on its concept here, telling us nothing new about the perils of incarceration that we haven't already heard ("I put my brave face on, can't let them know that I'm scared"). Despite that, the music doesn't suffer at all, and great songs continue coming at a clip through the album's middle, like the plodding, layered "Welcome to Hell," which features some great low-end piano. "Hard Times" is a bluesy number scored with sweet strings and enough surface noise to remind us its supposed to sound like it came from 40 years ago. "The Recluse" is also scored prominently with strings but their purpose is quite different, combining them with harder beats and guitar to underscore Strickland's harsh mental anguish as he reaches his low point in the story.

Things look up a bit on the brighter "Trade in My Cigarettes," which is a sunny, '70s-era pop/rock melody, but then get darker again on "Darkest Place," which packs in quite a lot of '70s-style pop drama, with its cacophony of sounds, although it has a lot of rap on it too. In between them is "Prayin'," which effectively uses the modern soul sound perfected by producers like Mark Ronson. As does the doo-wop number "Free," on which Banks pleads for his freedom.

"I Know a Song" is a quieter love ballad, scored with acoustic guitar, bass and later strings. It's a really lovely little song, showing the artist's more tender side. "What You Gonna Do" is a punchy closer with hard-hitting hip-hop verses, on which Strickland seems hardened and resigned to his fate. Not exactly the uplifting finale I was hoping for, but probably more realistic.

This is a really great album, one that I enjoyed more and more with successive listens. None of the songs are bad, and although they explore different sounds, it all holds together quite well. Songs that don't jump out at first have a way of displaying their charms with subsequent listens. "She Said" has turned into one of the season's biggest hits, and I imagine there are more on the way later this year.

Best: She Said, Love Goes Down, Writing's on the Wall, Welcome to Hell, Hard Times, I Know a Song