Banks & Steelz, Anything But Words,(Warner), ★★1⁄2

Banks & Steelz is a collaboration project between RZA, of the American rap group Wu Tang Clan, and Paul Banks of American rock band Interpol.

Their debut album, Anything But Words ,is a meaty listen, with 12 songs averaging about four-and-a-half minutes each.

Rapped verses and sung choruses is an album theme, with the scale of indie-rock and hip-hop varying between each song.

It kicks off strong, with the energetic opening track (and album highlight) Giant sounding like Outkast’s Bombs Over

Baghdad with a psychedelic, indierock twist.

RZA’s vocal is less smooth and lazy, a bit like Snoop Dogg’s, and more early hip-hop, powerful and preachy.

It’s indeed a contrast to Banks’ dreamy 90s rock vocal, brought to the forefront in tracks like Ana

Electronic and One By One. They’re joined by Florence and the Machine’s vocalist Florence Welch for Wild Season, who brings some whimsical electronica to the album.

The main issue is the push and pull of tone. The intense immediacy in RZA’s rapping always feels prematurely slowed down with Banks’ existential vocal, and vice-versa.

The result: an album that is neither particularly great hip-hop, nor great indie-rock, but a curious collection of half-baked goods. –