CD: Marshall Law
MARSHALL LAW, Wayne Marshall's debut album moves between a selection of party tunes and some more socially-concientious ones. Marshall Law is a good effort, which is not surprising since most of the entertaining tracks have already recieved much airplay.
The album's 'intro', promises 'dancehall to the highest power'. Although Marshall Law is unable to deliver this, the offering is quite a good one. Not quite a deejay, but certainly struggling against being a singjay, Marshall tries to add just sufficient edge to his tunes to rough-up the crooning.
The best part of the album is the variety to be found in the tracks. The songs vary from hardcore dancehall to roots reggae, and even manages to touch on R&B with Passed Away.
The party tunes, such as Game, Marshall Town, and Feeling It, give Marshall ample opportunity to 'choo-choo' his own horn. He also dallies with the celebration of marijuana in Zoned Out and Purple Skunk, neither of which are strong enough to make it into the anals of weed history.
These light pieces are then offset by Marshall's real strong point, the tracks which focus on social commentary. The popular Overcome is one of these. Although it is the most popular, it cannot be compared to the beautifully rendered Captain, which is at least based on a 1980s reggae hit. The album ends on a good note wtih Beautiful Morning, one one of the best tracks Marshall Law has to offer.
Why? continues the silly obsession with condemning oral sex and the lyrics are too weak for it to make it into the group of more substantial songs. Why?, featuring Vybz Kartel, offers nothing more than a catchy hook on a played out issue. My Wife on the other hand, a song which tells the story of a man who catches his wife cheating, is a funny song, and quite worthy of a listen or two. It takes you back to the stylings of storytelling greats such as Professor Nuts.
Natural Mystic is one of the more disappointing tracks on the album. The disappointment comes in large part because of the title, which naturally echoes Bob Marley's Natural Mystic, strains of which can also be heard in the rhythm. This allows for some high expectations, which the song is unable to deliver.
All in all, Marshall Law is a lot more than merely blowing smoke to a good beat.
Track Listing
1. Intro
2. Game
3. Overcome
4. Hot in the Club
5. Zoned Out
6. Natural Mystic
7. Taking the Music
8. Big Flex
9. Marshall Town
10. Why?
11.Ghetto People Song
12. Captain
13. Check yourself
14. Feeling It
15. Purple Skunk
16. My Wife
17. Passed Away
18. Beautiful Morning
- Tanya Batson
