Review of Junior Reid's "Emmanuel Calling"

It's always been a mixed bag with Junior Reid. There's no doubt that he's one of reggae's most recognizable and spiritual vocalists, but his dabbling with production in recent years has yielded inconsistent results.

The minimalist, more tribal sounding tunes that Reid has produced have stood out as quite good. However, a number of attempts at overly complex riddims and melodies have sounded disjointed. One example of this was with RAS Records' release of Listen to the Voices, a mid-90's release that featured an outstanding title track but a number of off-kilter songs that could have been left on the shelf.

Reid's latest release, Emmanuel Calling is similar previous efforts, but is less uneven and presents one of the better albums we've heard as of late from the former Black Uhuru frontman and mighty Bobo dread.

The disc starts off with an outstanding pair of tracks: "Mashing Up the Earth" and the title track, "Emmanuel Calling." Both feature basic, but driving, riddims with minimal melodies. Reid is as spiritual as ever, making these two not to be missed. Other solid tracks include "Free Man" (a familiar melody starts the track off, but the rest is classic Reid style), "Jah Love," and "Trod Up a Zion" (bring that kette drum!).

There are some downsides, though, with this release. One is "World News," which is fine vocally, but the beat on this one is almost too simple, too buried in the background. The keyboard licks also sound unnatural. The Street Sweeper Mix of "John Law" is also troublesome, as the drums sound exactly like a Flipmode Squad production. Again, not terrible, but unnatural. The Hip-Hop Mix (which seems much less so, actually) of the same track later on the album is much better. Perhaps the lowest track on the album, musically, is "Back in the Days" -- everything sounds grossly off-key and dissonent, which is a shame, because lyrically it's a relatively strong piece.

The disc is packed: 19 tracks, a full 72 minutes long. And it's well worth the price. Despite the few valleys (inevitable on a disc with this many songs), there are more mountains -- JR hasn't lost a bit of his voice over the years and his production is getting better and better each outing.

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