Avelino finally dropped his long-awaited debut album ‘God Save the Streets’ last month, after teasing us with mixtapes such as ‘Ego Kills’ and ‘No Bullshit’, Avelino blessed his fans with ‘God Saves the Streets’, an 11-track album with features Wretch 32, RA, Ghetts, Tiggs Da Author and more.

“Vex”, the standout single from this album sees Avelino go bar to bar with BackRoad Gee and Ghetts. All 3 complement each other well as their strong and distinct flow make this track more memorable as well as the beat, which slightly has a Rockstar flow due to the use of synths. It’s not a surprise this is the standout track on the album as Fraser T Smith produced the track, an absolute legend in the music scene.

Avelino x Wretch 32 is an undefeated combination, so it only makes sense Wretch was featured twice on the album. “Vicious Cycle” and “Sin City” sees the rappers link up and effortlessly flow on the two atmospheric tracks. “Vicious Cycle” is a song about survival, about growing up in a time of postcode wars, tough love and gang culture.

“We never chose where to live but we chose to be rivals”, “Your dad keeps you centred through fear, not affection, it’s like your loved ones are helping you prepare for a sentence.”

Though the bars come across effortlessly, “Vicious Cycle” is actually talking about a lot of significant themes rooted in the black community today.

“Brotherhood,” another banger from this album sees Tiggs da Author on the bridge, his soulful, melodic voice elevates this track stamping Tiggs da Author as the voice of the streets as he never fails to deliver. “Brotherhood” is about always holding onto that bond, the same friendship from the same council estate, from the same school after all these years, which a lot of people can relate to as Avelino reminisces on this, which gives this track the replay factor.

The album closes with “Acceptance”, where Avelino acknowledges all his wrongs. This song is a moving assortment of peace offerings and expressions of remorse to everybody he’s failed, displayed over the exquisite piano and thoughtful strings. This was a nice way to tie up God Save The Streets, on a positive, reflective note.

Overall, God Save The Streets was a good project with Avelino addressing important themes, and featuring artists that complimented him well. However, this project was slightly lacking a bit of versatility, it would have been better to get more soulful singers to sing the hook on a few tracks on this album, as “Brotherhood” proved that Avelino’s sound works well with a contrasting artist on the hook.