Alborosie – Soul Pirate
Reviewed by Sadie O., 2/3/09
Roots riddims and dancehall vocals from one of the hottest Reggae stars today – who happens to be Italian. Gruff voice and great command of patois, and sincere Rastafarianism. Apparently he also plays all instruments besides horns (and is REALLY proud of his dreadlocks…) One of the best Reggae albums to come out lately that isn’t a compilation or reissue…
No FCCs detected, unless you count the stuff in Patois…
I love tracks 4, 9, 14, 16, 17, 18.
1. 0:13 spoken intro
2. 4:10 *downtempo roots bubble, passionate singing, Rasta lyrics.
3. 3:49 **starts with toasting, rub-a-dub style dancehall love song with Ranking Joe DJing – loses a star for using vocoder on the chorus…
4. 3:12 ****starts with dancehall chant and faint sirens, then slightly downtempo skank with dancehall reality chat – great cut.
5. 3:27 ***horn flourish intro, midtempo roots skank, dancehall chant with Rasta lyrics.
6. 3:51 **mellow slightly downtempo bubble, Rasta praising.
7. 3:11 ***very downtempo bubble, rather dark monotonal dancehall chat about police raid. A bit of vocoder on the chorus, but not enough to wreck a good song.
8. 3:10 **pretty little bouncy bubble, interesting rap about naughty living.
9. 3:38 ****sirens and choppers and slow skank – classic sound, diatribe about the heat and the pressure.
10. 3:59 *jazzy sax and downtempo bubble, love song (actual singing).
11. 3:38 ***horn flourishes intro, downtempo bubble, dancehall chat about backstabbers. Gets a star for chicken squawks.
12. 4:00 ***very slow bubble, Michael Rose introduction, sung duet, Rasta lyrics. Gets better as it goes along.
13. 3:14 **very downtempo dubby skank with lots of percussion/bass, love song – quite pretty, really. Some rather odd analogies presented…
14. 3:39 ****dubby midtempo bubble with horns – classic dancehall with sample of one of the great cuts.
15. 3:56 ***swingy downtempo bubble, cool sounds, very rootsy.
16. 4:39 ****ska! Uptempo with swell horns, fun lyrics. Melodica solo!
17. 3:41 ****midtempo roots skank, duet with Michael Rose, the obligatory love song to pot.
18. 4:48 ****long fade-in to downtempo roots bubble, swingy, a bit dubby. Remake of Wailers hit with one of Bob’s youngest kids singing and Alborosie doing Dancehall rap.