Montego Bay

Female roots/dancehall vocalist. Some very good tracks, but also some really dicey ones. Also all over the map in terms of production – track one sounds like it was recorded around the campfire out in the brush, but some other tracks are way too commercial sounding. A couple of songs are disturbing content-wise (track 8/13 is about being abused as a child, track 9 apparently is homophobic…) That said, tracks 2, 3, 7, 10, and especially track 5 are really good.
1. 5:12 *nyahbinghi drums and chants – very, VERY roots.
2. 3:35 ***pretty midtempo skank, reality check about one of Jamaica’s more popular parishes.
3. 4:06 ***video game electronics, slow skank, no idea what she’s going on about, but it sounds pretty cool…
4. 4:19 **very commercial sounding intro, then very relaxed midtempo skank. Pretty singing about being strong…
5. 3:31 ****chatting and nyahbinghi drums, then strong midtempo march, all about rasta power. Dancehall vocals, cool minimalist riddim.
6. 3:39 sweet and a bit commercially produced slightly uptempo skank, love song.
7. 3:59 ***cool midtempo video game riddim, look before you leap lyrics.
8. 4:10 creepy! midtempo relaxed skank, song all about being abused as child. I suppose it’s good to bring this sort of thing in the open, but it’s pretty disturbing to listen to…
9. 3:47 midtempo skank, telling de bad man to gwaan wit demselfs… Actually, when I listen closely, I think it’s a homophobic song. *sigh*
10. 3:32 ***nyabingh drums and ululations, both singing and dancehall chant.
11. 4:16 midtempo skank, deep alto singing, fantasy love song. I don’t really want to know, frankly.
12. 4:34 *acoustic guitar, very slow, no beat, commercially produced, very VERY sad reality song.
13. 4:18 *track 8, the child abuse song, in Spanish (it’s less disturbing when you don’t much understand it…) The piano’s quite good on this.