Album review: Tinie Tempah, Demonstration (Parlophone)

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Washington Bureau Chief

Given Tinie Tempah's wish-list of collaborators for his second album – from Drake, Adele and Chris Martin to James Blake and Lykke Li – the line-up of Dizzee, Labrinth and a trio of Naughty Boy production duets with Emeli Sandé, Paloma Faith and Laura Mvula seems less intriguing. But there are enough decent moments to call Demonstration a success, not least the Diplo-produced "Trampoline", with its cavernous sub-bass and liquid-synth motif, and the brutal Dizzee duet "Mosh Pit". Lyrically, the album balances precariously between laddish celebrations of promiscuity and the sensitive claims of "Heroes", a belated realisation of the corruptions of success, which finds Tinie wondering, "What am I doing sitting next to two MPs?".

Download: Trampoline; Mosh Pit; Witch Doctor; Heroes