Posted on 05/15/2009
The title of Lady Sovereign’s new record overtly refers to the state of her heart (it’s “like a jigsaw puzzle, pick it up and fix it for me”) but it’s a more fitting metaphor for her career, which after a stellar rise has quite frankly gone to pieces. And sadly Jigsaw won’t do much to arrest her slide into mediocrity.

It’s mainly a problem of timing – whereas once Lady Sov forged a trail for feisty, gobby British females, she’s now been overtaken in the popularity stakes by Lilly Allen and the musical department by MIA. These unfortunate comparisons are thrown into even starker relief given Lady Sov’s decision to move into electro-pop territory for the vast majority of Jigsaw. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, like on the Cure baiting “So Human,” but it takes away more of what made her stand out back in her days in the grime scene.

Despite her boasts that she has “that bang bang sound” and “I Got You Dancing” (which features the most ill-advised foray into auto tune territory since Cher’s “Believe”) there’s nothing on Jigsaw which really goes any way toward justifying this. The beats are standard, the hooks are flat.

That just leaves Lady Sovereign’s particular skills as an MC. And this is where she, and by extension Jigsaw, stands and falls. Her offhand, throwaway delivery is the sonic equivalent of that good old English teatime treat, Marmite. You either love it or hate it. But even if you stand in the former camp, she seems to have lost the wit and sparkle that marked her earlier releases out and won her a deal from Hov himself after a freestyle at Def Jam HQ.

What’s there to learn from lines like “If I could play guitar, I’d play it, so I’ll just sing it” on, you guessed it, “Guitar,” or the Britpop aping “Student Union” that’s a horrific updating of Pulp’s “Common People.” The first time Lady Sov comes up with a sympathetic line is when she asks “do you want a drink? I bet you do” on “I Got You Dancing,” by which time you’re gasping for any sort of distraction.

It’s frustrating, as she can be endearing, like on the opening “Let’s Be Mates,” which captures the awkwardness of teenage romantic encounters pretty accurately, but that’s lost amongst the general mess that Jigsaw falls into. It’s going to take a whole lot of people to help fix the puzzle of what’s next for her.

- Will Georgi