Northern State "Can I Keep This Pen?"

[MC Moot]

Anyone got it?....any good?....to buy or not to buy?.....I know Adrock was involved with production.....I kinda liked "Dying in Stereo"....they're coming here on the under bill for Tegan and Sara.....I'd go see them but T and S annoy the hell out of me....

????

[Parkey]

It's alright...

Here's my review as featured in the current edition of Clash Magazine. ADVERT!

Hmmm. As if three intelligent women picking up the mic and wading thigh deep into the twat fest of modern hip-hop weren’t magnetic enough, the added potency of some Ad Rock sculpted beats and Mike Patton’s Ipecac imprint should have nigh on guaranteed that ‘Can I Keep This Pen?’ was a late summer blaster. The fact it doesn’t quite achieve this is a genuine shame… At their best Northern State knit their hop-scotch rhymes around a gorgeous icy pop core, with the likes of ‘Better Already’, ‘Away Away’ and ‘Run Off The Road’ all devastatingly emotional treatise that can’t fail to connect. The diminishing returns kick in when they fall back on loping old-skool hip-hop junctures such as ‘Things I’ll Do’ and ‘Oooh Girl’ - neither of which are actually bad, but nor do they provide much in the way of inspiration. With a 70/30 hit rate ‘Can I Keep This Pen?’ may seem something of a risky punt, but catch Northern State when they’re facing forward rather than mythologising the past and you’ll discover a genre breaching pop act trying to break free of a needlessly suffocating niche.

[MC Moot]

At their best Northern State knit their hop-scotch rhymes around a gorgeous icy pop core, with the likes of ‘Better Already’, ‘Away Away’ and ‘Run Off The Road’ all devastatingly emotional treatise that can’t fail to connect.....

ohhhh,I like that!....(y)....would ya pay $23 for it?