Occasionally, we at Desitunes4u get to review albums which we decide upon before opening the sellophane. Think Jazzy B's ‘Romeo', Nitin Sawhney's ‘Philtre', or Jay Sean and Rishi Rich's latest albums. The fact of the matter is that the name of the artist means its great.

And today we have DCS with ‘Desi Culture Shock'.

There you go, review over, I'm going home.

Not quite, I am forced to add. Some big names have slipped into the 7.5s and the occasional 6.somethings. They shall remain in the archive for you to look for yourself. So Shin and the boys may have made us wait eight years since their last Punjabi album ‘Punjabi Dance Nation', but they can't let the tortoise get away.

We begin in a club (but it sounds more like Starbucks) with Shin and Juggy D talking about a soni kurri who has caught Juggy's eye. “She's baaaaaaad” he exclaims. But whoever she is she's not half as “baaaaaaad” as the first track on this album. ‘O Jaan Meri Ya' is the bhangra anthem of the year so far. Shin and Juggy bounce off each other like its nothing and the thick beats and strings are pure skank background as you move your shoulders and sing along to the lyrics.

After the amazing explosion, we are met with the slightly less frivolous ‘Pilade Pilade', which nonetheless is a decent track. Shin's opening salvos show the power and confidence in his voice put to great effect. The baja and backing vocals are spot on but heavy criticism is that it is overly long at 6 minutes, which makes the hook and verse patterns get tedious.

The beats relent for the third song, ‘Rab Ne Banaiyan' which is a nice soft duet between Shin and Dipalee Somaiya. This is one your mum will like and again a good showcase for Shin's voice. The orchestration and production is genuine and flowing and it's an overall very positive.

Everyone knows DCS love their skits and the first on this album is ‘If Ur Panjabi' where the desi kids take over the class singing lesson. You may have seen the cartoon on B4U or Youtube, be prepared to see it at Sikhi weddings this summer.

The next song is ‘Dhamak' and it's very good. DCS are at the forefront of orchestrated music in Bhangra and this track is a great example. Growling gorrae guitars play in harmony with sick dhol breaks and in the midst of it comes Shin's voice which is as potent as ever. It's the kind of things that many guys in the scene wish they could do but they simply don't understand how different styles can fuse but DCS have got it right on the head. This will stick in your head as you sway singing “Aja tooooooo a nachediiiiiiiii”. Big tune, different but big!

The tempo slows again for the sitar laden ‘Adhi Raatin.' I didn't really like this, Shin doesn't sound at home on this, which is a bit weird as his voice was encompassed by the previous slow song.

Happy summer bhangra is next on the menu with ‘Manja Soniye'. Sing-along lyrics and a smiling tumbi are the main ingredients, and a nice seasoning of desi percussion make you have to smile. I liked this a lot, its good to have upbeat bhangra tunes that aren't necessarily dance floor anthems.

We then get the funny but chauvinistic skit called ‘Roti.' I won't spoil it but it should've finished after the punchline but ended up wasting one and a half minutes of my time.

‘Tere Surmen' comes next and sees the insertion of Shorty Littlelox who you will remember from Dr Zeus fame. Sorry to say it but I hate this guy and I hate this track. Word on the street is that it's a stale sample of a Sam Singh track although I'm not familiar and am only turning the rumour mill but I don't like it so I don't care.

Thankfully, things improve dramatically for the end of the first CD a happy wedding-type song called ‘Nach Lain De.' Sing, sing and sing again but make sure you smile more. Nothing overworked and some nice little 8 bar melodies; lovely simple beats and lyrics but a great effect.

The intro to the second CD lets Shin stand up and showcase his talents really well again over a kartik violin, and when the beat comes in everyone gets into place for ‘Japhiyan.' It's a decent track but the tempo is a little slower and makes everything a little sluggish; this would've been great as either a dance floor tune or a slow tune but it falls in that murky water of something in between, like the British sailors in water between Iran and Iraq .

Another female singer is brought in for ‘Mai Ik Punjabi', which is an easy and well worked concept duet. Jaspinder Nirula deserves a lot of credit for her work on this track against Shin's smooth flows they work really well. Shin's performance on this track is exemplary and a reminder to me of why he is my favourite Punjabi singer. Musically, it hits the right notes as well, where it acts as a platform for the singers, knowing when to make noise and when to shut up. Excellent stuff.

The next skit is my favourite and left me creasing for hours, despite my limited knowledge of Punjabi. ‘Babaji' is a bad boy!!!!

‘Jee Nai Sakde' is next and is a decent and typical DCS tune but lacks killer instinct. Don't get excited.

Then there's a remix of ‘Tere Surmen', although this is an original rendition without samples (confused? I am). It's better than the first, as tracks written are better than those stolen (or borrowed as I'm told the political terminology is) and any version of a track without Shorty Littlelox on it has been greatly improved.

Interestingly, we then get a three minute instrumental called the ‘Bride And Groom' march, which is such an obvious title it means I haven't got to comment on the music. Nice different concept, but a bit I don't think instrumental bhangra will take off.

The penultimate song is ‘Tere Nain Nashile', and is another great example of the greatness in Shin's voice. It's a tune based on guitars and with bass turned up it gets wrecked I feel, but listen to it on decent speakers and you'll get a good dramatic effect and the scratching will have a much better effect. Decent tune, but lacks bite.

The final skit is ‘DCS on iPod' which is a waste of a good play on a freshy Bombay accent.

We close with ‘Bothle Sharaab Diyaan' which realists will complain is not a typical daru boliyaan but it's a great track nevertheless. It's got everything that's great about DCS: a good variety of instruments played well, some innovative beats and backing vocals and last but not least, but of course, Shin's voice. Don't forget about this at the end of the album, its top drawer.

Conclusion? As I always say, do what you do best and unfortunately, DCS don't do that enough on here. As I have said before its all well and good trying new concepts and evolving your sound but when I can only pick out two or three banging dance tracks – the core DCS style – then something has happened. Musically, I think its good; there are a few duds on there and I feel too many slow tracks, but on the whole there are eight tracks out of 21 that I feel are to DCS's high standard (and one of those is ‘Babaji'!!). The album seems to be aimed at DCS's huge worldwide potential for wedding bookings and with sales not what they used to be the DCS crew need to earn money some way or another.

You may have noticed that I've not harked on about this being two CDs. Value for money is exceptionally important and when you hear ‘double album' your eyes should light up but I warn you don't be fooled by Moviebox's marketing techniques. ‘Desi Culture Shock' is 88 minutes long and one CD can house 80 minutes. ‘Desi Culture Shock' has nine minutes of skits (including the wedding instrumental) which means that Moviebox have officially screwed the music buying public again especially when taking into consideration that the R.R.P is set at £11:99. And unfortunately, that means that DCS can only get 7 out of 10.