Burning Spear – Jah is Real
Reviewed by Sadie O., 8/22/08
The latest skank ‘n’ bubble from the great Reggae teacher, with a big band and female backing chorus – as well as Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrel on 4 tracks. Spear seems to have been through some bad music business times lately, as several tracks have to do with music biz evil. Several other tracks talk about concerts where people just had a good time… I like the songs that are more like Spear’s classic chanting style, but the final remix track is a bit of a trip. Tracks 2 and 4 include version/dub.
No FCCs detected. I like 12 and 14 best, but it’s all Spear, fer Jah’s sake!
1. 4:39 **uptempo skank, female chorus, very upbeat. Party on the boat! Nice counting song for a kid, actually.
2. 8:10 ***midtempo danceable skank, upbeat, chant about all the places he’s been. I guess you could say this includes the “version” – second half is instrumental (feat. Bootsy and Bernie Worrel.)
3. 4:56 ***downtempo rootsy skank, lush music, classic Spear vocals.
4. 6:29 **bouncy midtempo skank, prominent electric guitar. All about bad music business! This one includes a dub.
5. 4:06 **midtempo roots bubble, growling sax intro. Rasta religious chant, sweet music.
6. 4:23 ***somewhat uptempo and quite upbeat, exhortation to people in power.
7. 4:57 **midtempo, part highlife and part spiritual. Exhortation to Africa to unite.
8. 3:54 **downtempo skank with call and response vocals, slavery lyrics.
9. 4:55 ***uptempo and upbeat bubble, another diatribe about the music biz.
10. 4:29 **upbeat bubble, rich instrumentation, nice harmonies, more music biz.
11. 4:18 **another upbeat bubble, lots of horns and syndrums, positivity lyrics.
12. 4:32 ****rich midtempo bubble, classic Spear chanting. Apparently about an irie concert where the police DIDN’T raid folks for smoking…
13. 4:22 ***strong midtempo skank, “livity” chant.
14. 4:42 ****fast semi-grime remix of track two with solo bass guitar. Gnarly!