Urban Dance Squad
Persona Non Grata

THE REVIEW

The Urban Dance Squad are a Dutch quintet who, throughout the 1990s, have produced a series of crossover albums that have nothing to envy about the records of more celebrated bands, with Rage leading the pack.

I begin my first review for DeBaser like this; with what, without too many fears, I could easily consider a musical dogma. In 1990, they debuted with the album "Mental Floss For The Globe", a record that emerged from the rap - thrash metal fusion already hinted at by groups like Run-DMC. They later continued with "Life'N Perspective," leading up to, in 1995, "Persona Non Grata."

The album is, without a doubt, the band's most polished work. Some might define it as a more "commercial" product compared to the more spontaneous and chaotic style of their previous works, but I see it instead as a turning point on a professional level: is it a crime to decide to be more polished and attentive in the arrangements and production of an album? I believe not. And indeed, the results are evident: the album starts with the triptych Demagogue - Good Grief - No Honesty, tracks in which you find all the classic hallmarks of '90s crossover: tight rhythms, heavy riffs, and torrents of words like even Jalisse. Then it continues with "Alienated", where the 5 show they also have substantial melodic skills, producing a truly stunning, captivating ballad from the first to the last note (perhaps the album's true masterpiece). I could almost stop here; after all, crossover is certainly not a genre to analyze note by note, and the remaining tracks all rely on the classic genre mold already mentioned, still resulting in being enticing and never banal.

A fundamental album for all genre enthusiasts.