Notorious

Album review

For all of his by-the-numbers Bobo Dread machismo, if you've been listening closely to Turbulence's last few albums it will come as no surprise that he's starting to branch out a bit in terms of musical style. The album opens with "Fire Pon Dem," a song that deals lyrically with the typical Bobo preoccupations but is cast in musical terms that are closer to roots rock than to roots reggae. The next song, the album's title track and a huge Jamaican hit single in late 2004, swings quickly into a heavyweight electro rhythm, and that song in turn segues into a finger-wagging roots-and-culture number titled "Do You." He shows that his rock & roll excursion was no fluke with the equally guitar-centric "I'm Yours," then promptly slides back into reggae mode for "Front Line (Want a Natty)," which is almost certainly the first reggae song to rhyme "dropsy" with "paparazzi." Excellent. Not every track hits equally hard: Turbulence indulges his unfortunate penchant for whiny pseudo-gospel vocalisms on the annoying "Work It Out" and never quite catches fire on the relatively lackluster "Liberation," but otherwise this album can be counted as more solid evidence of Turbulence's growing dominance in the modern reggae marketplace.

© Rick Anderson /TiVo