UK Release Date: Monday 28th November 2011

Label: All Around The World

With a front cover comprising a solo shot of Dappy, Tulisa’s X Factor promo image and whatever random Fazer photo happened to be kicking around at the time of going to print, it couldn’t really be any clearer that this N-Dubz Greatest Hits is a shameless cash-in on both T’s elevated profile and the lucrative Christmas market. Still, why not? Lord knows the majority of us would be unlikely to delve into the divisive trio’s back catalogue at any other time.

Credit where it’s due, you can’t argue with the numbers. Working their way from the bottom up, they’ve released two Platinum albums and one Gold, had a healthy share of chart hits, and collected four MOBO Awards. Not too shabby for a group who’s lyrics include “Whose shoes are these/I thought they were your Nikes”.

The N-Dubbers do their brand of pop-tinged urban “flavas” to a fair standard, but it’s by no means to everyone’s taste. “Na-na-naaaaiiii” gets irritating after approximately one times, and a lot of their earlier stuff, dating mainly back to their Uncle B opus from 2008, is loud-and-proud chavtacular fodder that is rarely big or clever. As for the later stuff, which has much more of a dance-pop flavour to it, some of it is so generic it makes Taio Cruz look boundary-pushing. ‘Morning Star’ is the real low point.

But occasionally Dappy and Fazer’s raps have something interesting to say (‘Papa Can You Hear Me’, for example) and the production makes for a nifty listen. Mr Hudson collab ‘Playing With Fire’ is still perhaps their strongest effort, an “N-Dubz Version” of Tinchy Stryder hook-up ‘Number 1′ (i.e. Tulisa’s on it) is very good, and ‘Love Live Life’ has an irresistible marching beat to it that makes it hard to sit still. The rest will be classic to some, horrifically irritating to others.