Album Review: Rudimental - Home

A rudiment is usually either something essential or something undeveloped; the London four-piece's debut album, Home, is neither. Polished to within an inch of its digital life, the result is a shiny, sparkly slice of EDM blending house, dubstep, drum 'n' bass and soul into a signature sound that will, no question, define Rudimental's albums for the coming years. And herein, pardon the pun, lies the rub. The sheen is such that Home gleams indelibly; but the amount of polishing has eroded, reduced and worn down the soul behind the sound to leave a finished product that earns radio and club play at the expense of longevity.

The production is high quality throughout, but it is in its consistency that it loses its cohesion. Home doesn't take the listener on a journey, and we don't ebb and flow with the music. At times, Home more or less trickles, with changes of pace not matched by changes in timbre or direction. Far from the huge singles Not Giving In and Waiting All Night, the standout track is Hide. Featuring Sinead Harnett's neat vocals, the soulful muted trumpet picks up pace into a double-time two-step. This forms one of the more successful segues, priming the listener as it does for Powerless, a 2/3rds tempo jungle beat underpinning some nice vocals from Becky Hill.

There is a guest vocalist on every track, bar the opener – another example of the studio enthusiasm. Lyrics are much as expected, and it will be up to the listener to draw their own thin line marking the point where emotion ends and platitudes begin.