In 2001, several years after any listeners could've expected a follow-up to 1992's Connected, Stereo MC's finally delivered with Deep Down Dirty. It's a tribute to how far ahead of the curve Stereo MC's were ten years earlier that Deep Down Dirty never strays far from the spirit of Connected, but still sounds perfectly up-to-date for 2001. It's clear the productions are more mature and more complex, but they still plumb the depths of deep-groove beatbox funk, with nods to soul-jazz and gospel. Still tossing out lines with the half-assed cool of Shaun Ryder or Ian Brown, frontman Rob Birch doesn't rap quite as much as he used to (that's a good thing), and the productions are a tad more down-tempo and dubby than when the band was at its most clubbed-up in the early '90s. The title-track opener sets things off in fine fashion, working a stuttered mid-tempo groove with split-second snippets from the horn section and a full-throttle vocal backing. In true soul tradition, the upfront mover Graffiti, Pt. 1 segues into a bongo-led Graffiti, Pt. 2. Birch even sends up his slacker-cool image on Sofisticated, a groovy piano-and-beatbox number. Along with Birch, producer Nick Hallam (aka the Head) is the other key to what makes Deep Down Dirty so much fun, packing his productions to the bursting point with dusty beats, lines from old Hammond organs, and samples of bygone soul shouters. Despite a few traditionalist, anthemic tracks (We Belong in This World Together, Running) which don't work as well as they would've in the heady days of 1993, Deep Down Dirty is a solid record that reveals no trace of cobwebs from Stereo MC's long hiatus. ~ John Bush, Rovi

1		Deep Down & Dirty
2		We Belong In This World Together
3		Breeze
4		Running
5		Graffiti (Part 1)
6		Graffiti (Part 2)
7		Sofisticated
8		Traffic
9		The Right Effect
10		Stop At Nothing
11		Unconscious
12		Shameless
13		Deliverance