Jamie T - Tinfoil Boy

You’ll have to forgive Jamie T his reinvention - only the most blinded would deny that his trademark’s been spray-painted all over by a certain young Essex troublemaker in recent years. It’s been a while coming, though. Indeed, ‘Tinfoil Boy’ is evidence that perhaps Jamie T’s been ready to move on for quite some time.

Last year’s ‘Carry on The Grudge’ did exactly what it said on the tin, really, never taking Jamie’s cockney accent and modern-day frustrations too far from the path previously trodden. By contrast, ‘Tinfoil Boy’ is an explosion of fresh ideas, like the fizz-bang of a Panda Pop wedged in Jamie’s back pocket as he hopped around all those post-hiatus festival stages last summer.

Some experiments work better than others - the almost Chase & Status-esque “BOI, BOI, BOI, BOI, BOI, BOI” drop one of the more eyebrow-raising elements - but on the whole it’s a welcome, darker evolution, still housing that inner-city nausea that made him such a compelling prospect in the first place.

With a style as distinctive as Jamie T’s, it’s all-too-easy to sink into routine. ‘Tinfoil Boy’ is a rulebook ripped up - mixed though the results may be, it’s in the shreds of his past that T’s next moves reside.