LUCIANO

Serious Times

(p) 2004-jun-15

CD:

Tracklisting:

 
01 Give Praise  
02 Come Down Father  
03 The World Is Troubled  
04 Stay Away  
05 Just Talk To God  
06 Satisfy Your Self  
07 Love Will Make It (ft Morgan Heritage)  
08 Echoes Of My Mind  
09 Free Up The Weed  
10 Alpha & Omega  
11 Serious Times Serious Measures  
12 No Where To Go  
13 We Need A Miracle  
14 This Feeling  
15 Jah Is My Keeper  
16 The Ras She Wants  
17 Only Love  
VP, VPCD 1688 CD
VP, VPRL 1688 LP

REVIEW IN ENGLISH:
SOURCE: ROOTS MUSIC Reggae & Dancehall
AUTHOR: Teacha Dan



Luciano started out in 1992 as a wayward exponent of the new roots and culture and he has grown massively as a singer and performer since. Luciano is now regarded as the most soulful of Jamaica's reggae singers. Knicknamed the 'messenjah' he is always keen on spreading the positive message of one love and of rastafari.

All of his albums are of high quality and often consist of a balanced mix of original music and some pre-released singles. On this album most of the songs are originals and produced by legendary saxophone player and producer Dean Fraser. There are also two songs produced by Bobby Digital, one by Jammy's and one by Seeed.

The set includes excellent cover versions of Dennis Brown's 'The World Is Troubled', of the Abyssinians' 'Come Down Father' and of cult pop performer Fred Neil's 'Everybody's Talking' (1968), included as 'Echoes Of My Mind' on the tracklisting. Although the latter has been a favourite of such icons as Emmylou Harris, Neil Young and Tony Bennett who have all recorded and performed the song numerous times, VP records carelessly credits the lyrics to Julius Papp and Dave Warren, who are in fact house music perfomers who had a song 'Echoes Of My Mind' on a lounge compilation album. The popular performer Nillson was the one who scored the biggest chart success with 'Everybody's Talking' when his version was released as the theme song for the 1969 x-rated movie 'Midnight Cowboy'.

One of the pre-released songs on the album is 'Stay Away' on the very popular Germaican produced Doctor's Darling rhythm, based on Gregory Isaacs' original hit 'Night Nurse'. The very strong backing is performed by Seeed and the biggest hit on the rhythm was undoubtedly Tanya Stephens' 'It's A Pity'. Another great song that is backed by an even older rhythm is 'No Where To Go' which is voiced on the same Studio 1 (Mad Mad aka Diseases) rhythm as Sizzla's 'Got It Right Here' to be found on his Digital-B album Da Real Thing.

Lyrics galore about love, rasta, faith and society's misconceptions as we have come to expect of Luciano and there is a true herb song included called 'Free Up The Weed'. It is well known that the messenjah is a very gifted and conscious writer as he demonstrates time and time again and this album is no exception to that self imposed rule.

The overall soundquality of this rather acoustic album is of a very high standard, which is not surprising concidering the fact that people like Rohan Dwyer, Shane Brown, Bobby Digital and Bulby York were behind the mixing boards. Also big-up to the to me unknown Alberto for his mixing skills. Instrumentalists include highly respected players like Sly Dunbar, Danny Bassie, Wrongmove, Christopher Birch, Robbie Lynn, Nambo Robinson, Jr. Chin and of course the man Dean Fraser himself.

'Satisfy Yourself', don't deny yourself Serious Times.

(Teacha Dan)