Alborosie – Escape from Babylon

Don’t know what your opinion is of white singers trying at emulating their black singing inspirations, but Italian reggae artist Alborosie, since moving to Jamaica, has established himself as a highly credible artist in this field. This album is a follow up to last years “Soul Pirate”, which apart from ‘Herbalist’ I’m afraid to say I’m not familiar with.
The LP much like Buju Banton’s new release (reviewed back in June) sees Alborosie taking a trip back in time to the classic roots and dancehall days of the late 70’s with inspiration coming from the likes of Bob Marley, Burning Spear, Steel Pulse and Black Uhuru while giving it a modern twist. Lyrically the LP is a mixture of political comment ‘America’ and ‘Money’ (complete with Horace Andy ‘Root of all Evil’ sample), unity ‘One Sound’, the ‘erb ‘No Cocaine’ and fun ‘Mama She Don’t Like’, which is a down tempo, ska style track. This track indeed given enough airplay in the right quarters could easily crossover I feel and become one of the sounds of the summer.
Overall a good LP and I liked Alborosie’s wide range of vocal delivery which helps to keep the listeners interest.
Oh and I just love those cartoon style covers
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