Blessed – Blessed
Reviewed by Sadie O., 11/14/07
First full album by up and coming Dancehall star living in Canada. Covers a wide variety of styles, including a couple of cool Reggae/ Reggaeton mashups – unfortunately, IMO covers a wide variety of quality, too. I can’t tell you how much I hated track 18, but everything with 3 and 4 stars is quite good…
FCCs on track 7 (which is VERY naughty in patois!), and might be one on 17, but since it’s so hard to tell, I ain’t sweating that one…
1. 3:59 ***uptempo and upbeat, almost ska. Lush harmonies, big hit.
2. 3:56 **short preaching intro, then midtempo and rather mellow dancehall with what sounds like a bit of backmasking, more harmonies.
3. 3:16 *modern midtempo dancehall, slightly processed vocals. “You’re all I need, even more than weed” – gotta love it!
4. 3:51 processed vocals and talking intro. Downtempo dancehall love song. This kind of vocal processing is so popular in dancehall these days, and I’m sick of it…
5. 3:46 ***sweet midtempo lover’s rock riddim. In praise of Jamaica – the board of tourism needs to latch onto this one.
6. 3:57 ****remix of track 2 – fusion of Reggae and Reggaeton. First time I’ve heard this combo – cool! Apparently one Andy Vama provides the Reggaeton production/vocal.
7. 3:44 FCCs – “fuck” and several in Jamaican… somewhat uptempo dancehall.
8. 3:32 **midtempo roots skank. Mostly cool lyrics, but there are some cheesy elements.
9. 3:36 ***finger snapping and skat intro, then downtempo dancehall skank.
10. 3:16 ***midtempo roots skank – the obligatory song about pot.
11. 3:10 *downtempo modern skank with some truly odd processed vocals.
12. 3:57 **downtempo dancehall skank with female backing vocals, stand firm lyrics.
13. 3:27 downtempo dancehall skank, a bit of vocal processing – quite sweet lyrics, but the music is pretty dismal.
14. 4:02 ****midtempo roots skank, Rasta militant lyrics.
15. 3:37 **downtempo dancehall, strong hard times lyrics.
16. 3:45 **midtempo skank with lots of electronics, female backing vocals.
17. 3:33 May be an FCC? ***downtempo skank with syndrum, hard times lyrics.
18. 4:32 slow R&B – godawful. Female guest vocals. I hate this!
19. 4:06 slow dancehall with a bit of nyahbinghi drum and too much synthesized strings, Rasta lyrics.
20. 3:06 ****strong midtempo dancehall skank, strong elements of Reggaeton. Good sound.