Scritti Politti: White Bread Black Beer : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Scritti Politti's Green Gartside, pop music's most lovable Marxist, has emerged from the self-imposed exile he's been on since releasing 1999's Anomie and Bonhomie. Gartside famously vowed to shun his post-punk ideals in the Eighties, devoting himself instead to writing thoroughly effervescent soul shakedowns with titles like "The Sweetest Girl." It was his bid to become the thinking man's Phil Collins. But with his latest, White Bread Black Beer, Gartside is in a Thom Yorke mood: This album features some of his most beautiful, introverted and delicate tunes yet. He proves he's still a pro at distilling pop's best elements (four-part harmonies, comfy electro beats, lean instrumentation, finger snaps) and spinning them with clever lyrics on songs like the gritty rocker "Dr. Abernathy." Gartside, whose tenor still sounds astonishingly youthful, has relaxed somewhat in his middle age. On "Throw," he sings cheekily, "Sure I've got the sense to make/A record of my own undoing." Just not this time around.