Notorious: The Album

Turbulence – Notorious: The Album (VP Music)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 4/25/06
New school reggae – a bit roots but with electronica, a bit dancehall but with rasta preaching. The rasta/social justice theme is strong throughout, however. Sometimes the production is a bit slick, sometimes the vocals are a bit rough. Definitely different, occasionally pretty cool. The “preaching” is fairly angry sounding yelling/toasting – actually more fun than the less in your face singing. Most of the CD is recorded in Tel Aviv.
No discernable FCCs. I like 2 and 11 best, 7 is terrible.
1. 3:34 *downbeat, acoustic guitar and rasta preaching.
2. 3:45 ***cool minimalist beat, more angry preaching, then cool riddim and singing.
3. 3:52 *pretty midtempo bubble, vocal harmonies as well as toasting.
4. 3:21 *slightly uptempo skank, Babylon must fall
5. 4:12 midtempo, some electric guitar as well as rather overpolished girl chorus, about having a baby – rather odd sound for the subject.
6. 4:16 *midtempo skank with female guest, love song. Some extra sounds are cool and some are a bit slick.
7. 3:33 slow, “R&B”, absolute crap.
8. 3:02 *midtempo skank with a bit of electronica, rather banal vocals but pleasant sound.
9. 3:42 **uptempo, minimalist beat with electronia, rasta preaching. Extremely abrupt ending.
10. 3:00 **midtempo, minimal and electronic riddim (not really reggae), falsetto vocals and preaching.
11. 2:24 ***Middle Eastern instrumental backing, midtempo, dunno what he’s saying but it’s a cool sound.
12. 4:13 **slow, cool riddim, impassioned singing
13. 3:55 downtempo acoustic guitar and pretty backing vocals. Some nice sax, but a pretty confused message.