SINGLE REVIEW: 'ill Manors' by Plan B
The world of protest songs is a difficult one to navigate. It is filled with potential dangers and cliches: audience-alienating condescension, exorbitantly anarchic lyrics, descent into chanting choruses of such tediousness and monotony it’s a wonder anyone is still listening by the end.
But Plan B’s ‘ill Manors’ - despite undoubtedly being a protest song inspired by the 2011 London riots- successfully navigates and avoids these pitfalls almost entirely, yet still succeeds in having a message worth hearing.
The lead single from a soundtrack of the same name (for a film also written and directed by the artist), the track has two key elements that make it so effective. The first- its clipped lyrics bursting with caustic imagery and double meaning- mark something of a return to form for Plan B, whose last release (a mod/Northern soul-style LP totally different to his first album) hit the mark melodically and commercially, but lost the lyrical impact of his original hip hop compositions. The second vital element of the track is the unnerving strings riff, sampled from ‘Alles Neu’ by German musician Peter Fox, which in turn samples Russian composer Shostakovic’s 7th Symphony.
These two elements come together surprisingly well to create a song that is musically interesting, tackles the highly charged issue of governmental discrimination towards ‘working class’ people in the UK, and is actually something you might even want to listen to more than once. Cleverly toeing the line between anthemic and plain raucous, the track’s chorus in particular leaves a lasting impression; for so much confrontation (‘I said ‘oi!’/what you looking at you little rich boy?’) and cynicism (‘we’re poor round here/run home and lock your door’) to be compacted into such a small part of a song, and yet to still sound so explosive, is quite a feat.
Admittedly the track loses some of its momentum when it hits the bridge, becoming a little disoriented until it finds its way back to the chorus again. But this doesn’t dampen the overall impact of ‘ill Manors’ (note even the title’s double entendre)- the overt energy and genuine rawness of which one imagines it would be difficult to suffocate.
For the full effect of the track, watch the music video too. An intriguing juxtaposition of choreographed gang scenes, gritty real-life camera footage and cut-and-paste style animation, it rams home the message of the song with true ‘This Is England’-esque grittiness (despite the majority of the novel content being in the video’s first half).
But even when examining simply the track itself, it is almost impossible to deny the genuine feeling behind it. And whether or not one is in agreement with Plan B’s message, or the animosity with which it is delivered, it is surely refreshing for anyone to hear a protest song delivered with such genuine eloquence and emotion.
