Jamie T, Panic Prevention

I recently reviewed Jamie T's debut album for The Drum Media. here is what I concluded:
London’s Jamie Treays is being touted by those in the know as The Next Big Thing, and it’s easy to see why he’s causing such a stir, as his debut album attacks the senses with a crazy mix of styles which confuse and fascinate as much as entertain.

After several listens to Panic Prevention [so called because of the songwriter’s childhood panic attacks], this reviewer is still scratching his head trying to work out how to describe the sound that is beating his eardrums into submission.

Essentially bouncing capriciously between indie, dancehall, punk and rap, Jamie T’s unrelenting tales of London life give a nod to Joe Strummer, and are told with an equal amount of wit and aggression. He also proves that swearing is big and clever, and litters expletives throughout his stories, which are as close to those told by Arctic Monkeys as they are to the caricatured efforts from The Streets.

To illustrate what a bizarre collection of sounds Panic Prevention offers, the opening track is a punky, acoustic bass-led rant, whereas Treays raps bleak lyrics over Sheila’s hip-hop backbeat, and Salvador sounds like it wants to drunkenly bash Bloc Party down a dark alley.

Panic Prevention is challenging, confrontational, unclassifiable and not always easy to listen to, but there is no denying that it is also utterly exhilarating. This album is a 50-minute panic attack, and one gets the impression that Jamie T doesn’t care if it makes any sense to you or not.