Showtime

We dug the mangled beats and thoroughly bizarre rhymes on Dizzee Rascal’s debut, but the way people gushed about him, you’d think the dude parted the Red Sea. Showtime is essentially more of the same weirdness from the talented British MC, so it’s not surprising our reaction is similar: more interesting than good. Repeated exposure doesn’t make his awkward beats or his maniacal flow sound remotely ordinary, but Dizzee requires a lot of patience to groove on. Try to bob your head to the unpredictable rhythms of “Respect Me” or “Girls” and you’re liable to wrench your neck something awful. “Imagine” spins an almost tender synth hook over twitching beats, but most of the melodies here sound like chopped-up cell phone rings or twisted video game samples. There’s nothing dull about hearing such an otherworldly collage of sounds, though it can get a little exhausting.