SBTRKT - The Rat Road

SBTRKT has returned after a six year absence with an album of epic proportions – 22 tracks across more than an hour. It’s also promised as his most adventurous album yet, a commentary on the music industry and social landscape heeding no sonic limits. It’s a surprise, then, when this turns out to be his slowest, emptiest record. There are good moments: ‘Demons’ has a creeping darkness to it that points at Mareaux, while ‘Days Go By’ seems more fleshed out in a Tame-Impala-meets-The-Weeknd jaunt. But these moments are rare, with most of the record dedicated either to miniature interludes that feel unfinished or anonymous slow jams that blend into one another. That social commentary is light on substance too, with many of the lyrics being trite jabs at the system. This is an album with so little to say, and so much time to say it in, that it’s hard to finish. Perhaps if it had been pared down, and freed from the expectations of a triumphant return, it could have been more of a testament to the sublime producer that SBTRKT has proven himself to be in the past.