The best examples of melancholy can be found when considering the music s leader, Bob Marley. Let s be honest. It wasn t that you completely believed him when he first told you that everything was going to be alright .
What drew you to him was that he made you believe everything wasn t alright for him at the time you first heard him sing those words. That s what made the music beautiful. Then, after he made shooting Sheriff John Brown somehow feel like visiting the ocean in July, it shouldn t have been hard to figure out that it s the music s happy, upstroke guitar patterns and infectiously calming grooves that deserve the credit for the music s constant smile, not the lyrical content.
All things considered, it is clear that Bob s second son, Stephen, hasn t lost touch with that formula, combining gloomy words and groovy music on his debut effort, Mind Control. While reminding brothers Damien, Ziggy, and Julian that they aren t the only living Marleys with musical prowess, Stephen stays true to the music s logic by filling each song with feel good music and feel bad words to make what turns out to be a pretty good album. Much like his brother Damien, on Mind Control Stephen certainly pays more attention to hip-hop than he does to what traditionalists would call roots reggae.
But though Damien has chartered a great deal of mainstream success recently because of that commingling of genres, Stephen does a much better job of it by embracing traditional reggae more than his brother has ever been willing to do. On one of the more hip-hop oriented tracks, You re Gonna Leave , Stephen s delicate voice croons lines such as The hurt is way too much this time and She thinks she knows me more than me in a way that no other Marley has been able to do since their father sang about those three little birds. While the track certainly isn t backed by traditional reggae feel, or a live band for that matter, the silky yet gritty hip-hop backdrop proves to be the perfect setting for such a love-torn tail.
Then there is Juna Di Red , with the predictable cameo from Ben Harper, and Let Her Dance , with two more, lesser-known cameos from rapper Illustr8 and songstress Maya Azucena. Though they are the only two songs on Mind Control that don t fit under either the reggae or hip-hop categories, Marley does a good job covering up their awkward irrelevance to the feel of the album. But the album s best track and first single, Mind Control , is where Stephen finds perfection.
The album s opening track combines funk, soul, pop, and reggae over a voice that makes you check to see if the first name on the cover of the album says Stephen and not Bob. And while Mind Control may be Bob s Get Up Stand Up , songs like Chase Dem , Lovely Avenue , and The Traffic Jam refuse to go unnoticed. Chase Dem and Lovely Avenue are the most roots reggae any of Bob s kids have ever been, while The Traffic Jam features a guest spot from brother Damien and a beat-box track that demands attention.
As with most other contemporary reggae albums, though one can t expect a roots reggae effort with Mind Control, one can expect a reggae album period, and that s not bad. Combine that with a better Marley tag than any other brother s previous efforts, and what you get is a debut album that is more promising than any other reggae artist in today s current music world. Though not everyone can Catch a Fire with their first release, Stephen s spark seems to be the most likely to someday blaze.
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