NIKO B — ‘DOG EAT DOG FOOD WORLD’

Writer’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Niko B first broke onto the scene in 2020 with his world conquering tune ‘Who’s That What’s That’ as it took TikTok and then the world by storm. Since then he’s been releasing music sporadically, one song at a time and creating a fun, lighthearted and most importantly very good catalogue of songs as we approached his inevitable debut album.

With a good reputation and a solid collection of tunes under his belt, we began the road to ‘dog eat dog food world’ with its opening song, ‘trespass coat.’ From its incredibly catchy chorus, fun lyrics, great music and great feel it was the obvious choice for lead single. It’s Niko B at his best and maybe his best song yet. It’s a perfect fusion of everything that makes Niko B special and unique and it serves as the perfect way to open the album.

Elsewhere on the album, the other standout tune ‘it’s not litter if you bin it’ which ticks all the typical Niko B boxes. Catchy beat, fun and lighthearted chorus, lyrics that make you crack a smile and an undeniable charm but this is where I started to see the cracks show with this album. Whilst the two first singles released for the record got me incredibly excited for it, they showed where his strengths lie.

For me, the charm of Niko B comes with his approach to his music. It isn’t meant to be taken seriously but even with that weight taken off the shoulders of the young artist, he is still an undeniable talent. Whether he’s singing about smoking weed and having panic attacks, drinking J2Os down the pub or losing his charger before a night out, there is a real sense of tongue in cheek with every song and when he is just releasing singles that helps him hugely. However, I’m not the biggest fan of how this attitude translated into a full album format.

As the album rolled on, each song began to feel less and less special as every tune had the same immature and jovial tone throughout. There’s only so many times I can hear lyrics about pasta before I begin to lose interest and I think the approach to his music that has served the young artist well so far in his career came back to bite him here. He is a tremendous talent and one of the UK’s most intriguing artists but with the way the persona of Niko B is given to his audience, I don’t feel that it translates too well to a full album.

That’s not to say that this is a bad album, I just believe that the format of an album helps to dampen the shine on him as it’s forty minutes of silly songs about nothing. The beats are catchy on every tune and instrumentally this is one of the year’s finest but I don’t think this does enough to justify its twelve track runtime.

However, I’m still a big fan of Niko B and almost all of these songs will make their way into my various playlists, I just think for him to shine to be as bright as he can the less is more approach would pay dividends.