''Awfully Deep'' is a studio album by British

alternative hip hop Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a subgenre of hip hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising " hip hop groups that refuse to confor ...

artist Roots Manuva, released in 2005 by Big Dada. A limited edition version of the CD was released, which included a second disc entitled ''The Noodle Pack: Demos, Versions and Exclusives''. In October 2011, it was awarded a double silver certification from the

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...

(IMPALA), which indicated sales in excess of 40,000 copies throughout Europe.

Critical reception

''Awfully Deep'' garnered positive reviews from

music critic ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mus ...

s. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 80 based on 19 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". David Peschek of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave high praise to the mixture of dancehall, electronic and two tone used throughout the production and Manuva's self-deprecating delivery that's devoid of any "dreary machismo" used by his US contemporaries, concluding that "Smith has crafted an album that is deft, addictive and profoundly musical, and it feels like a fresh-minted classic." A writer for ''

Tiny Mix Tapes ''Tiny Mix Tapes'' (also ''TMT'' or ''tinymixtapes'') is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, a ...

'' praised Smith's electronic dub production and lyricism for having a more "intense, oppressive feel" throughout the album despite a dip in quality in the second half, concluding that "Still, this is great stuff, the music is often awesomely original, and you feel yourself willing Smith on to beat his demons. 'Nuff said." '' Pitchfork'' contributor Tom Breihan commented how the record was similar to

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...

's ''

Kid A ''Kid A'' is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and their hometown of Oxford. After th ...

'', noting how Manuva goes from "street-rap relevance to navel-gazing experimentation" through slow and methodical production and lyrical vocalisation, concluding that "Manuva has the force, vision, and charisma to remain relevant, to keep ahead of the game. He's too good to let the world pass him by, but that's exactly what will happen if he continues to disappear inside himself." Jonah Weiner, writing for '' Blender'', noted how the album goes back and forth from "comically paranoid fantasies ("Awfully Deep", "Too Cold")" to tracks with a "political edge ("Mind to Motion", "The Falling")", calling it "protest music gone gleefully psycho." John Bush of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

said, "Overall, Roots Manuva may have a lot to say during the verses, but when his choruses consist of little more than a repeated line shouted over and over ("Awfully Deep," "Too Cold"), listeners won't be hanging around long enough to decipher his verses."

Critical reception

Track listing

Charts

References

External links