Thrillah

Easy Star All-Stars – Thrillah
Reviewed by Sadie O., 8/6/12
The Reggae cover version of you will just NEVER guess what… There is a huge 80’s pop tinge hanging over the whole project, which is fitting to the material (but not at all what I had expected…) Still, the production is fantastic and the rhythmic rearrangements flawless.
1. 7:48 ****slow, relaxed intro, VERY funky shuffle, Hammond and horn section – just NICE! Nicely soulful female vocals. Bitchen sax solo in the last (vaguely dubby) minute.
2. 4:30 **uptbeat, bouncy and funky Reggae bubble. Pretty, but rather generic vocals. Cool bits of percussion. Sweet little love song, very 80’s feel.
3. 4:01 ****super cool downbeat dubby skank, top ranking guest vocalists. David Hinds stills rocks!
4. 7:34 ***VERY creaky hinges… midtempo, bouncy skank, bits of dub (which work perfectly). Spragga Benz clearly had fun with the spoken word part.
5. 5:27 ***electronic tones intro, very relaxed syncopated riddim. Oddly, the lyrics become more understandable with Michael Rose singing. Gorgeous, actually – but not at all what I expected!
6. 6:26 ****uptempo, very dubby, odd rhythm. Luciano’s lovely vocals complement the somewhat dreamy and strange music.
7. 4:56 *downtempo, swingy skank, sweet vocals, very relaxed and mellow.
8. 4:08 **midtempo syncopated skank, cool keyboard sounds, rather commercial female vocals.
9. 4:53 **downtempo, sparse uber-dub, melodica. Extremely sweet tenor vocals.
10. 4:55 **dubby horn section intro, then VERY sparse bass.. Here come the dub squonks. You can get a contact high listening to this through headphones, mos def.
11. 6:49 *****uptempo groovy (and very dubby) dub.