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"Inner City Life" is a 1994 song by British electronic musician Goldie featuring vocals by British singer Diane Charlemagne and is taken from his acclaimed 1995 debut album, Timeless, released on 21 November. It is widely considered one of the most iconic drum and bass works of its era,[1] and peaked at No. 39 in the UK. NME ranked it No. 11 in their list of the "50 best songs of 1994".[2] In 2013, it was ranked No. 30 in Mixmag's list of "50 Greatest Dance Tracks of All Time".[3]

"Inner City Life"
Single by Goldie Presents Metalheadz
from the album Timeless
B-side	"Inner City Life" (remix)
Released	21 November 1994
Genre	Drum and bass jungle
Length	3:50 (radio edit) 7:00 (full-length) 21:03 (album version)
Label	FFRR
Songwriter(s)	Clifford Joseph Price Rob Playford
Producer(s)	Goldie
Goldie Presents Metalheadz singles chronology
"Inner City Life" (1994) "Angel" (1995)
Music video
"Inner City Life" on YouTube

Background and release

"Inner City Life" is a portion of the album's first track, "Timeless: Inner City Life/Pressure/Jah", which is a 21-minute opus. The song fuses the breakbeats and basslines common in jungle with orchestral textures and soul vocals by Diane Charlemagne. It has been described as a ghetto-blues ballad, 'a yearning reverie of sanctuary from "inner-city pressure"'[5] and features a sample from Ike Turner's song "Funky Mule", from his 1969 album, A Black Man's Soul.[6] Goldie/Metal Heads became the first jungle act to make the Radio One playlist, albeit the N-list, with the track.[7]

"Inner City Life" peaked at No. 49 on the UK Singles Chart in 1994. In 1995, it re-entered the chart, peaking at No. 39. "Inner City Life" was performed live at The Word[8] on Channel 4 and it was included on the soundtrack to the film Trainspotting (Trainspotting 2: Music from the Motion Picture, Vol. 2). At the time of the release, the single didn't receive much radio play, according to Goldie.

Critical reception

Andy Kellman from AllMusic described the song as "emotive".[9] Ben Turner from The Guardian stated, "Inner City Life perhaps said it all – the sound of an intense and explosive urban city under a hot beautiful sunlight. The kind of feeling that something is about to blow. And that was jungle."[10] Dom Phillips from Music & Media noted its "vocal future jungle delights",[11] while Maria Jimenez remarked "the soulful breakbeat", complimenting it as a high quality track of its dance sub-genre.[12] Andy Beevers from Music Week gave it four out of five, stating, "This is the most creative jungle tune yet. Diane Charlemagne's superb vocal soars over the plunging bass, galloping beats and almost ambient synth sweeps. It is a powerful combination that is earning DJ plays from unlikely quarters and deserves to cross over."[13] Brad Beatnik from the magazine's RM Dance Update said, "Perhaps the most talked about record of this month, 'Inner City Life' is actually only a small part of an impressively large picture. (...) The use of the strings and strong female vocals are the defining characteristics on a tune that deserves a standing ovation."[14] Another editor, James Hamilton noted that "Diane Charlemagne calmly wails in jazz samba style through swirling shrill strings and explosively skittering 0-155-0bpm jungle beats, weird and atmospheric".[15]

Rupert Howe from Muzik wrote, "This is a masterpiece of melancholy, with all the dark/light, bass/melody contrasts in jungle thrown into kaleidoscopic relief. The spectral strings move disturbingly in and out of focus, the low frequencies seem to open up underneath you, and the eerie mutations of Diane Charlemagne's vocals float in the ether, utterly lost in space. Emotionally, it's all over the place - joyful one minute, intense enough to suck the daylight out of you the next. Anything to make you feel more alive."[16] Simon Reynolds from The Observer said it "could turn out to be jungle's breakthrough masterpiece".[17] Charles Aaron from Spin commented, "...Goldie has been doing time for a couple of years in London's hardcore techno and jungle scene where insanely speedy breakbeats mixed with goofy vocal snatches run on endless loop. But with "Inner City Life", he inhabits another realm altogether. Like Marvin Gaye ruminating while rushing, he fades a breathtaking vocal by Diane Charlemagne (plus muted trumpet) in and out of ethereal beats. Fraught with dub's tensely apocalyptic vision and techno's hopeful twitch, this is finally the sound of an urban pulse that acknowledges both black and white expressions and tensions, and the feeling of coming up, going down, and needing to keep dancing forever. No other jungle I've heard has sounded like this. Or any other dance music, for that matter."[18] Shane Danielsen from The Sydney Morning Herald noted the "swirling strings" of the track, "underpinned by complex poly-rhythms and booming subsonics."[19]

Music video

The accompanying music video of "Inner City Life" was directed by Mike Lipscombe.[20] It has interchangeable indigo and sepia tone and was later digitally remastered. The video was published on Goldie's official YouTube channel in July 2020.[21]

Impact and legacy

In 1996, British clubbing magazine Mixmag ranked "Inner City Life" No. 34 in its list of the best singles of 1996, "Mixmag End of Year Lists: 1996".[22]

Same year, British drum and bass DJ and producer Fabio chose it as one of his Top 10 tracks, saying, "This track showed the scope of the music and it shocked so many people: before this record people thought drum & bass was good dance music and nothing else. This showed that the music could be as deep as Massive Attack or anything. It's good and bad all wrapped up in one."[23]

In 2010, David Crawford called the track "epic" in his book 10,001 Songs You Must Hear…, adding that it "boasted swirling strings, a clattering break beat that evolved throughout the track, and Diane Charlemagne's sweet, soulful vocals on top."[24]

In 2013, Complex included it in their list of "The 15 Best Songs From the Electronica Era". They noted, "Chock full of soul, precision breakbeat edits, and strings, "Inner City Life" helped let the mainstream know that drum & bass was more than the chin-stroking dark sounds in the corner, and was more than capable of making tracks that could move you emotionally."[25] Same year the song was ranked No. 30 in Mixmag's list of "50 Greatest Dance Tracks of All Time".[26]

In 2018, Time Out listed the track at No. 23 in their "50 best '90s songs" list, adding, "Fusing jungle’s intricate breakbeats, sub bass and unbridled futurism with heart-aching soul soundscapes and the lamenting voice of Diane Charlemagne, this beautiful-yet-brutal piece of sonic art switched an entire generation on to the power of jungle and D&B."[27]

Accolades

Year	Publisher	Country	Accolade	Rank
1995	NME	United Kingdom	"50 Best Songs of 1994"[28]	11
1996	Mixmag	United Kingdom	"End of Year Lists: 1996"	34
1999	Spin	United States	"The Top 20 Singles of the 90s"[29]	9
2004	IDJ	United States	"The 50 Greatest Dance Singles"[30]	20
2005	Süddeutsche Zeitung	Germany	"1020 Songs 1955-2005"	*
2010	Groove	Germany	"Die 100 wichtigsten Tracks der letzten 20 Jahre"	*
2010	Musikexpress	Germany	"The 50 Best Songs of the 1990s"	42
2011	The Guardian	United Kingdom	"A history of modern music: Dance"[31]	*
2013	Complex	United States	"The 15 Best Songs From the Electronica Era"	*
2013	Mixmag	United Kingdom	"50 Greatest Dance Tracks of All Time"	30
2015	Robert Dimery	United States	"1,001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, and 10,001 You Must Download (2015 Update)"	*
2018	Time Out	United Kingdom	"50 Best '90s songs"	23
2019	BBC	United Kingdom	"30 Tracks That Shaped Dance Music Over the Last 30 Years"[32]	*
2022	Pitchfork	United States	"The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s"[33]	125
2022	Rolling Stone	United States	"200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time"[34]	78

(*) indicates the list is unordered.

Track listing

Charts

Chart (1994)	Peak position
Scotland (OCC)[35]	88
UK Singles (OCC)[36]	49
UK Dance (OCC)[37]	6

Chart (1995)	Peak position
Scotland (OCC)[38]	47
UK Singles (OCC)	39
UK Dance (OCC)[39]	17
UK R&B (OCC)[40]	6

Cover versions, samples and remixes

This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2018)

• German jazz band [Re:jazz] covered "Inner City Life" on their 2004 album, Point of View.
• English rapper Wiley sampled "Inner City Life" on his song "Need to Be" from the 2008 album, See Clear Now.
• Aaron Jerome and his musical project Sbtrkt sampled the song on the song "Timeless", in 2009.
• It was sampled on "Strictly (Kassem Mosse 'Need to Feel edit' remix)" by Commix in 2010.
• British band Hackney Colliery Band covered "Inner City Life" on their 2013 album, Common Decency.
• British DJ Om Unit sampled "Inner City Life" on his song "Parallel" from the 2014 album, Inversion.
• Goldie remastered the song in 2017.[41]
• In 2020 Goldie announced a project on 25 years of project with interviews, archives, re-masters, remixes and re:jazz version.[42]

References

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