Nelly

Sweat/Suit (Mercury)

Economy and understatement have not been, traditionally, popular concepts with the multiplatinum hip-hop elite. But even by the genre’s extravagant standards, the two new albums by Nelly seem a tad excessive. Sold separately, Sweat and Suit are ruthlessly marketed to appeal to his twin demographic: uproarious party rap in the vein of Flap Your Wings on Sweat; smoochier, mumsy slow jams such as My Place on Suit.

It’s a fiendish scheme, but one that stretches Nelly’s boyish charms rather thinly. His easy, undulating rhyming style best suits the minimal rhythmic thud that predominated on his enjoyable debut, Country Grammar (2000). Here, though, he frequently disappears beneath bombastic productions and a procession of A-list guests.

Suit is actually the better album, more fun than the marathon of come-hithering suggested by its premise. A flash, schmaltzy, double-barrelled blockbuster, then. If only there were enough decent songs to fill one CD, never mind two.