The second album from the well known drum and bass duo Chase & Status, released in late January 2011, has been nothing but a success with a number of the tracks making it directly into the charts. With their average-achieving first album “More Than Alot” they accomplished a great sounding bunch of tracks. That being said, its got nothing on some of these tunes. During the three years between the two albums, the main difference is the variety of different songs they have. The majority of the tracks feature a different artist collaboration, like English grime MC Tempa T or Cee-Lo Green.

Kicking off the album is the upbeat dance track “No Problem” which starts with some rarther unusual tribal drumming, but all soon becomes clear as it breaks down into a typical Chase And Status synth beat to open the album. Being one of the less popular tracks it lacks a music video and doesn’t feature a famous artist like many of the other songs. Having said that I always hear this track as it’s featured on the game Fifa 12, which does give it that different edge. Slightly different to their usual tracks comes “Blind Faith”. Maintaining their get your hands up in the air atmosphere, and bringing in Liam Blainly with his soulful sounding voice, the song just simply comes to life. Having been heard nearly ten times a day on the radio, this track never gets old, having said that it’s got a bit of an old school sound to it but in a positive way. Theres a lot of emotion in the lyrics and the way they are sung, and also the incredible energy the song’s chorus maintains.

“Hypest Hype” is the highlight of the album. This track brings together the peak of overdrive guitar and beastly drum and bass, not forgetting lyrical mad man Tempa T, who as always, brings the pain with his monstrous MC vocals. The song kicks in almost staight away, getting everyone who knows it on their feet. Words cannot descibe the electricity that Hypest Hype brings with it when it’s played in a music venue. This track is guaranteed to bring out your ‘Bass Face’ (the facial expression made when you hear the drop).

Having recorded the track “Pieces” back in 2008 with Plan B, it was clearly best to not let the collborations with the soulful rapper end there. This album brings you “End Credits“, the first single to be released from No More Idols and make it to number nine in the UK singles charts. Alongside it came a music video, which featured footage from the hit film Harry Brown where an ex Royal Marine is living on a council estate which is filled with youth crime. The song starts with a basic guitar riff and Plan B laying down some melodic lyrics, then the drum and bass kicks in. The track suddenly comes alive with a pounding beat while maintaining Plan B’s swaying vocals; this all combines together to create the ultimate tune.

Chase And Status really have gone from strength to strength when it comes to No More Idols. This is one album that you can listen to literally anywhere; however the best place is probably live at a gig just for the incredible atmosphere that would be brought to each of the tracks. I would like to hope that future tracks could be similar to these by including the same featured artists and maybe some new ones as well. 9/10 for this album, near enough spot on perfection.