Woah, a 'social commentary' album! I LOVE these!Okay, so maybe I don't. And any compact disc that starts off with a train coming to a stop and the lyrics 'there's no more trains going that way, there's no more trains coming this way, you'd better make your way home son, there's something going down in London' is well, not making any attempt to hide its intentions. And maybe London Undersound isn't actually a pretentious album, but reading the utter pants that is emblazoned in the liner notes makes it very hard to push past the huge roadblock that is Nitin Sawhney's ego. And please, Nitin, having your music labelled as the genre 'unclassifiable' on media players is pretty fucking horrible. That is probably one of the major gripes I have with 'London Undersound', as if you look past the whole socio-political humdrum lyrics what you end up with is an album of perfectly listenable music. Maybe I'm really cynical, but albums trying to stir up social harmony and unification in the face of some despot or some tragedy always come across as a bit trite and unaffecting. However, this album is obviously not aimed at my type of personality. Nitin spends most of London Undersound splitting his views up into song sized chunks, with most of them riffing around the theme of unity. Take 'Bring It Home', which is a stunning bit of d'n'b lite with the always amazing Imogen Heap at the vocal helm. It really is a beautiful piece of music. And here's an example of the lyrics. "Anythings possible, we're in this together, equal and opposite, bring it home!". I nearly threw up. Im sorry. That's the musical equivalent of smacking someone in the face with a placard until they repeat the slogans through bloody, clenched teeth. And yeah, having someone deliver quite possibly the worst anecdote in the history of music about paparazzi is never a good introduction to a song. I won't repeat it here for fear of someone going blind. Again, the song it introduces, 'My Soul' is a really nice, chilled out song. It's just so...pretentious! The best track on this album is by far 'Day Break', and that may be because I can't understand what's being sung at the end, or if anything is being sung at all. Im completely oblivious, as far as i'm concerned it's one of the most individual and absorbing tracks i've heard. And yes, ignorance is bliss okay? 'Transmission' sounds like a drunken Goldfrapp, as long as you don't fall into the trap of paying too much attention to the words. And so on. You get the idea.I feel a bit unequipped to review this album. I do want to do it justice, but in order to do it, I'd have to change my entire outlook on life. So from an individual standpoint, London Undersound is incredible musically, but as soon as lyrics are spoken, it spirals into trash city. If I hadn't had bothered to read the liner notes I would have probably rated this album more favourably, but as I have and I fully understand Nitin's desires to broadcast his message via CD, I can't do anything but cringe slightly whenever I catch ear of a sentance or two. The music is of a very high caliber, the production equally so, but it's so bound up in pretence and a need to hammer home the story of the 7/7 bombings (which some people might want to put behind them rather than remember), that it's completely ruined. It doesn't really help that I'm a middle class kid from Surrey instead of someone that was there at the time, but don't nationally distribute an album if you don't want people to get a hold of it and feel instantly alienated by it, regardless of it's messages of friendliness.Yeah so, great music, the rest of it is cliche, egotistical and disastrously pretentious, and if you're not a fan or a Londoner, chances are you won't like this. I could have summed the review up in that sentence alone, but then I'd have got fired. 45%Nitin Sawhney On Myspace