Monday 14/05/07 Mr Hudson & The Library @ Barfly, Cardiff

It was only a matter of time before someone gave soulful hip-hop a new direction. For years it’s been a tired parody of itself that’s been more concerned with inflated status than social insightfulness. Enter Mr Hudson & The Library - a London/Birmingham troupe hell-bent on providing the beats as well as the memorable choruses. At the centre of it all is Ben Hudson, a dapper front man who acts as a Cole Porter for the 21st Century, but somehow finds himself slumming it in the worlds of grime and rap.

The band stroll onto the stage to the sound of 'On The Street Where You Live', a song plucked from the My Fair Lady soundtrack. The illusion of a night full of show tunes is quickly eradicated by 'Bread + Roses', a brilliantly crisp piece of barbed pop with a deafening backbeat and wry lyrics such as, “What are going to do with all that cash/it must get boring/being so flash,” almost acting as a direct diatribe to the glossed hip-hop industry.

The need for escapism is apparent on 'Take Us Somewhere New' which is drowning in jazzy overtones and Hudson’s quaint vocal exchange with Joy Joseph. It’s not often you see the use of a steel pan drum in pop, but Joy Joseph’s spectacular turn on 'A Tale Of Two Cities' creates a riotous atmosphere within the crowd.

The plaintive '2 x 2' has Hudson arching into the front rows, much to the enjoyment of a squealing gaggle of female fans. Musical semblance is soon reaffirmed in the form of 'Cover Girl', backboned by a thumping trip-hop drum break and greased beautifully by Hudson’s effortless vocal. After almost an hour of splicing music genres, the band leave the stage and then return with former single 'Too Late, Too Late' - a ska-inflected ditty that has Hudson at his most analytical with the mocking line, “Why Must I Always Play The Clown?”

The set is wrapped up by the ubiquitous 'Ask The DJ' with it’s flamenco guitar intro acting as a false sense of mellowness before the rapturous chorus kicked in. By the end of the track the stage is ambushed by a melee of excitable fans, eager to play a part in proceedings with some providing tuneless vocals. By breathing new life into a tired music genre, Mr Hudson & The Library seem destined to be calling the creative shots for sometime yet.