We Will Not Harm You

We Will Not Harm You
Studio album by
Dobie
Released19 February 2013 (2013-02-19)
GenreAlternative hip hop, downtempo
Length48:06
LabelBig Dada
Dobie chronology
The Sound of One Hand Clapping Version 2.5
(2004) 		We Will Not Harm You
(2013)

We Will Not Harm You is the second studio album by British alternative hip hop musician Dobie, and his first studio album for Big Dada Records. It was released on 19 February 2013.

Cover art

The album's cover art is an original painting by Chris Ofili, who had been friends with Dobie for years before its release.[1]

Recording

In an interview with MTV Hive in 2012, Dobie said, “I suppose it’s just me being brave enough to go where I wanna go, and not trying to follow what everyone else is doing. That was a big thing for me with this album. I was hearing what was going on out there and I was like, ‘I don’t really want to make a record that sounds like that.’" Critics have noted this as a potential influence on the album's eclectic style.[2] Dobie got the idea for the album's title when he heard George Clinton utter it in a Funkadelic documentary. Dobie has also used the phrase to describe the music on the album itself--"It's a bit out there, a bit nutty, but don't be scared of it," he said in a 2013 interview.[3]

Music

The 13 songs on the album are all instrumentals, which differs significantly from the hip hop music Dobie originally became famous for. Instead, the songs on We Will Not Harm You take cues from many disparate genres of music, such as, according to Exclaim!, "Afrobeat, techno, Latin rhythms, jazz and electronica."[4] Artists to whom the album's music has been compared include Flying Lotus and DJ Shadow.[5]

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?71/100[6]
Metacritic73/100[7]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
BBCmixed[9]
Drowned in Sound7/10[10]
Exclaim![4]
MSN Music (Expert Witness)(3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention)(3-star Honorable Mention)[11]
MusicOMH[12]
PopMatters[2]
The Skinny[5]

The album received generally favorable reviews. It holds a 73% rating on Metacritic[7] and a 71% rating on AnyDecentMusic?.[6]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."The Beginning"2:39
2."Blip 124"5:13
3."Stan Lee Is a Hero of Mine"4:05
4."Then I Woke Up"2:13
5."She Moans"4:49
6."The Chant"2:28
7."Magenta"4:49
8."Somewhere Over There"2:25
9."Crunch Factor No.5"4:01
10."Skit"0:59
11."On the Corner of Ridley Road"3:46
12."Snap, Crackle & Pop"4:13
13."She Wiggles When She Walks"4:26

References

  1. ^ "Dobie". Fact. 23 November 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  2. ^ a b Houle, Zachary (21 February 2013). "Dobie: We Will Not Harm You". PopMatters. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  3. ^ Clay, Joe (13 February 2013). "Don't Be Scared Of Music: An Interview With Dobie". The Quietus. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  4. ^ a b Williams, James (5 February 2013). "We Will Not Harm You". Exclaim!. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  5. ^ a b Wiseman, Sam (4 February 2013). "Dobie – We Will Not Harm You". The Skinny. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  6. ^ a b "We Will Not Harm You". AnyDecentMusic?.
  7. ^ a b "We Will Not Harm You by Dobie". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
  8. ^ Jeffries, David. "We Will Not Harm You". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  9. ^ Power, Chris (2013). "Dobie We Will Not Harm You Review". BBC. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  10. ^ Rolle, Kat (1 February 2013). "We Will Not Harm You". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  11. ^ Christgau, Robert (2013-02-19). "Odds and Ends 024". Expert Witness. MSN Music.
  12. ^ Young, Martyn (4 February 2013). "We Will Not Harm You Review". MusicOMH. Retrieved 16 May 2014.