Easy To Love

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Call it grown folks reggae or smooth reggae, but whatever the tag, Maxi Priest's 2014 album has plenty of what Beres Hammond calls those "Rockaway" songs, meaning love ballads that are smooth and respectful. No slack talk and strip club anthems here, just sweetness and the proper amount of sugar, and none of those early-'90s, overly slick plays for pop radio, either, as Maxi's first album in nearly a decade is the kind of reggae-pop favored by the reggae faithful, and in the genre's island home of Jamaica. The effervescent "Bubble My Way" is akin to the light dancehall that used to spice up Gregory Isaacs albums, while the title track fits somewhere among Ziggy Marley, Morgan Heritage, and Shaggy. "Gravity" is sunset and heartbreak with the help of soprano sax, then the punchy, all-the-way-live "Your Love to Me" high kicks like Anthony B, Sizzla, and Luciano. Oddly enough, Beres Hammond guests on the Motown-esque "Without a Woman," and even if the reggae duo give virtuoso performances, the song is simply a strange and slow rewrite of James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World." The other genre jump is the closing "Hearts Across the World," an admirable step into the peaceful and pop nation building of Wyclef, but the songs that deserve the most repeat plays are all about sandals and snuggling. That's the sweet spot for Maxi, who's lost none of his touch here, and can put a song called "Easy to Love" right next to a song called "Loving You Is Easy" and still make the listener hope the next song is about love, or at least something easy.

© David Jeffries /TiVo