Tinchy Stryder – In My System
He’s not number one anymore…
[Video][Website]
[5.67]
Kat Stevens: Tinchy is scratching his head and trying to remember how drunk he must have been when he gave his girlfriend the spare set of keys; then after a while he realises he doesn’t actually mind having her hanging around a bit more after all. It’s a rather sweet subplot to the main attraction, i.e. the best acid house pastiche I’ve heard this summer. S-Express’s lazy hi-hat sound, hands-in-the-air piano riff, EXTRA SNARE DRUMS and squiggling 303 underneath. I sincerely hope that the rest of Tinchy’s UK R&B chums jump on this particular sonic bandwagon.
[9]
David Raposa: Love the shut-the-fuck-up-and-STROBE backdrop so much that I wish to holy hell Tinchy wasn’t trying to pitch some awkward and frighteningly emo “can’t live without you” game (& inna “Wearing My Rolex” style, no less). Some dude (or lady dude; I’m a hep cat) with some actual swagger should jack this beat & the girl and make this banger really bang.
[6]
Martin Skidmore: Another Fraser T. Smith production, dance-pop with a nice enough female vocal hook and Tinchy rapping on it. He has nothing interesting to say, or any exciting ways to say it, so it’s dependent on the music, and this works well enough. It’s punchy and energetic, with enough going on that Tinchy’s undistinguished part is all but irrelevant.
[6]
Chuck Eddy: Still getting the idea that, the closer grime inches toward American r&b, the duller and more monotonal it sounds. I could be totally missing the direction it’s taking, of course. But this is still pretty one-note, beyond the glitchy parts.
[4]
Jonathan Bogart: Heretofore I’ve only known Tinchy’s name as a groan the UK contingent makes about modern pop; on this showing he’s another JaySean DeRulyaz with an East London accent. The female vocals make me think of cooler, more mysterious electro from the 90s, but it’s not enough to push past the galloping washes of undifferentiated sound.
[5]
Additional Scores
Michael Waters: [4]
Aw man, no-one else liked this? It’s banging! Tinchy himself I can take or leave but it’s been so long since a song described as having ‘rave synths’ ACTUALLY HAS THEM.
On a couple of cursory listens I thought this was a step up from the gross messes that were the Catch 22 singles, but not so much that I actively wanted to listen to it. I was going to cover it in my Guardian singles column but couldn’t think of anything to say about it then or now. It’s just there, 5/10.
Jonathan, Tinchy only got shit after making his big mainstream move; he was never a particularly characterful MC before that (notable mostly for being in Ruff Sqwad when he was 14) BUT he’d made some terrific bangers, and his debut album proper Star In The Hood was excellent, as I outlined with Youtubes here.
I’d have been up around 7 on this, maybe higher; I’m like everyone in finding Tinchy dogged and dull here, but the track works for me as it does for Kat, an overall sound that happens to have a functional rap embedded in it.