Review Summary: You're a king, you're a queen, you're a genius
UGLY in many ways serves as a thematic finale for UK rapper Tyron Frampton, rounding out a trilogy encompassing his first two full-lengths both tonally and creatively. The just off-mainstream artist and his The Streets on ketamine aesthetic have become something of a worst-kept secret on the UK hip hop scene, with the blending of a hip-hop and grime amalgamation, shot through with a caustic punk undercurrent. His appearance on the scene couldn't have come at a better time, as it was an era of major political upheaval for Great Britain, and his bitter, biting sound took careful shots at an array of social/ economic issues with a streetwise eloquence that balanced immaturity with gutter philosophy in a strikingly nuanced way. His first album, Nothing Great About Britain, was a wide angle establishing shot- purposeful and personal in equal measure, it tackled the social climate and slowthai's own space within it. It was a vicious excursion, and utilised a defined sound more typical of UK underground stylistics. Follow up release TYRON, was his closeup. More introspective and with a greater focus on the rapper as an individual, it flirted more aggressively with such experimental concepts as balladry and melancholic underpinnings, whilst still retaining a heavy UK hip hop preoccupation. UGLY, however, is a different beast. It serves as his extreme close-up, and has an intensely intimate sense of self-awareness to its more-fleshed out concept. Scattershot and brave, it leans heavily into experimental tendencies and unusual production choices, and dispenses with a good deal of the more traditional aspects that its predecessors had in spades. Fittingly, this heavier stylistic shift plays into the personal nature of the record; it feels haphazard, disoriented, yet is held together by Frampton's personal brand of unhinged tonality that evokes a sense of ardency, and even meaningful direction as it represents a more creative iteration of slowthai, the person.
Frampton's rapping style on UGLY, which borders on spoken-word at times more so than ever before, is consistently venomous and the sense of bitter catharsis that permeates every bar is abundantly evident from the outset. Opening track, 'Yum', lays his intentions bare, with a skeletal, stuttering beat and a whining feedback drone that offsets the delirium of the vocal delivery. There is a greater emphasis on band instrumentation and stripped-back rock musicality on UGLY, especially when contrasted with the more acerbic hip-hop typicality of TYRON. 'Sooner' and 'Feel Good' feel like subdued alt-rock tracks, with melodic verses and rousing chorus passages, much like third cut 'Feel Good', which mimics an anthemic punk stormer with a pounding drum beat and simple but melodic bass. Even slowthai's delivery here mimics the DIY scramble of a punk track, howling along to the instrumental flow in a style more expected of the genre. Even though a number of the songs on UGLY have a sense of life-affirming positivity to them, they are counterweighted by either a downtrodden sense of subversion, or a bitter musical abrasion, crafting a distinctly conflicted tone that mirrors the thoughtful, balanced emotionality. The moments more reminiscent of slowthai's hip hop/ grime outings have also been upgraded with more elaborate musical choices; where before drum loops and basslines where utilised, these have now been substituted for percussive rock rhythms and bass. These changes demonstrate the rapper's innate flair for finding vocal flows within these patterns, but expand the sound overall into a punk/ hip-hop hybrid that feels fully realised and less derivative. The title track serves as the zenith for this dynamic, slowly escalating and warping into a fractal, guitar-dominated mesh of overwhelming, beseeching emotionality. 'Tourniquet' deserves a special mention also, for its maudlin, plodding musicality offset by a bitter screaming vocal that waves over the instrumentation, every bit as dominating as a synthesiser wash. It's intense, and the production emphasising the vocal at the forefront contrasts the content in a way that feels genuinely human, and vulnerable.
The consistent flow of emotionality throughout UGLY serves as an effectively transmitted lynchpin that is able to deftly contort around the album's content in a smart, fluid way. There are no displays of posturing or flexing, only intensely personal flourishes that are both affecting and endearing. The abrasive sense of power that plays into this personality is formed by the juxtaposition between the vocal performance and the slightly atypical musicality, as it manages to strike an impressive balance between both worlds with the music accentuating the wide-eyed honesty in an impressively slick way. 'Selfish' is a great example of this, with hazy guitars and an entrancing synthline that links with the episodic, electronic punctuations. Frampton's delivery teeters between a controlled extolling of the verses, and an increasingly demented chorus delivery. The instrumentation mimics this escalation, becoming more off-kilter before devolving into distortion at the end. It's incredibly effective at creating emotional links between performer and music and forming something that feels like a genuine reflection of turmoil; frustration, bitterness, disillusionment. It is moments like this that make up the wealth of UGLY's power- overall the release serves as a display of startling intensity with a grand sense of integrity nestled beneath its unusual choices. slowthai's development as an artist is manifest here across nearly 40 minutes of powerful soul-searching that fleshes out his character but also allows for his unique artistic voice to present in more unusual, heavy-handed ways than we have previously seen. UGLY is as its title would suggest, a display of alarming, self-deprecating individuality; uncompromising in its honesty and powerful in its impact. Frampton has retained all of his notable strengths and evolved them into a sharp, crass and intriguing album that pulls no punches and showcases the focus of his vision in a blindingly original way.
