Tucked inside this CD case is a comic strip booklet. No thanks, no explanations, just a fun little story about the two of them, traveling the world, meeting cool people to hang with and searching for the elusive ‘Gary’. The vibe seems to be: where’s the fun gone from hip hop? And this album, seemingly, is an effort to redress this inequality. Sharing the production credits, Double K and Thes One both rap with the former pitching in with the scratching and mysterious role of ‘Soul Organiser’, which would be funny except he seems to have done a good job.

Another (BBQ) is a fun filled track featuring a catchy soul hook and lyrics that talk about a remove from the thug scene, and how nice it is to hang with your friends and some pretty girls and just relax, have a drink and a smoke. This is, indeed, not the first time this theme has been explored by these two. Food is clearly a passion.

But then of course, as the title suggests, this is a throwback to the old skool and to this end, many of the tracks use hooks and rhythms from older soul and R&B tracks. The two of them secluded themselves in Thes One’s new home studio to work out all these tracks, eschewing outside production and at times you do get a cut and paste feel. Also, as most of these source tunes are pretty obscure and yet, like a lot of music from the 70s, very familiar, there’s a definite sense of listening to something that you know, rehashed and renewed. The Public Enemy sample on Party Enemy No.1 really underlines though how much traction using a classic bit of music as a hook gives you in recreating a lost musical vista.

There’s no heavy or grave messages here in between the laments at seriousness and the greatness of chilling and partying, in fact it’s more like a survey of where these guys are at, what their life is like, and the need to make money and work hard. The Grind covers this in trademark fashion, with a soulful backing track and the two of them rapping, kicking beats, happy sense of real people making music, no over-production or superfluous gimmicks. People’s Riddum featuring Odell takes an unexpected side step in to reggae territory but the PUTS sound remains as it does in Love’s Theme which seems to have drawn influence from the Jodeci school of musical thought.

This is a good, and in its own way varied, album with lots of delight for fans and a definite cross-over appeal. But I do have some criticisms to make. For one it’s pretty samey for a lot of it. This would make it good backing music for your own BBQ, but not necessarily for the dedicated listener. Secondly, I think it’s a bit too down tempo. I think if the vibe you’re going for is ‘party time’ you need some more excitement thrown in.
But these are minor points. This is a very good album, very listenable, very pleasant, and just a bit of grit or urgency off being great.