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CD Review

"Rebelution"

Yami Bolo

Zion High Productions, 2003

Ted Boothroyd

Yami Bolo puts considerable emphasis on his songs' lyrics, as signaled by the number of words he manages to shove into each of them as well as their serious tone. It's fair, therefore, to judge his new album in large part on its lyrical content. But that's not going to be pretty, so first let's talk about the music.

Two-thirds of "Rebelution" is engaging in its hooks and appealing in its rhythms and arrangements. If you asked me right now, I could hum you the choruses of tracks number 1 through 9 merely on mention of the title or a key word. For someone as unmusical as me, that's remarkable, and indicates the power of Bolo's compositions. As for tracks 10 through 14-the ones that provide the extra 27 minutes that suggest you're getting a real bargain at the cash register-I can't distinguish much in the way of tune as I'm hearing them, let alone hum them afterward. But that still leaves 47 minutes of the good stuff.

Now for the lyrics. In his love song to "Empress," Bolo sings: "I love the things you say and do; I'll never make you blue." (Later he'll never make her sad, but that's when he wants to "give thanks for what I have".) The do/blue line comes early in the first track, and I when I first heard it I squirmed in embarrassment for his beloved empress as well as for Bolo himself. Yet a moment later Empress is described as "mother nature of creation," so perhaps the song is actually about Africa. But no, can't be, because then come the lines: "You wash my clothes for me; you cook my food/I love it when you're in the mood." By this time I was not only squirming, but very confused, and I wondered briefly if I should replay it and concentrate on the lyrics until I could reconcile the childish rhymes with the possibly rhetorical references. Some day I will, perhaps, but I've gotten over that urge and nowadays I just let the song flow pleasantly by and try to ignore the words. Occasionally, despite my best efforts, the line about how Empress shouldn't "drink the wine of fornication" does seep into my consciousness.

In "Talk Bout Slavery," Bolo rhymes slavery, history, enemy, nobility, humility, humanity, criminality, and hypocrisy. Unfortunately, such abstract words have almost no clout. The spare, concrete phrases in Burning Spear's "Slavery Days" ("shackles around our legs") or a single moaning cry from Culture's Joseph Hill told us more about slavery than all these uninventive, quasi-rhyming abstractions from Bolo, sincere and heartfelt though they be.

Admittedly, none of the other song lyrics have quite the deficiencies of these two, although none are particularly distinguished either. So, do I recommend this album? Sure. Good musicianship from the "Players of Instruments," clarity of purpose, a heap of undeniable hooks, and high production values-they're all there. Just don't expect poetry.

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Although the closest Ted Boothroyd has come to a personal association with the Caribbean was to have a Trinidadian grandfather, which Ted didn't really have a lot to do with, he happily took in Harry Belafonte's calypso hits in the '50s and became a huge reggae fan in 1969 when Desmond Dekker's "Israelites" hit big in Canada. Ted has reviewed books on Caribbean music for The Beat, writes album reviews for other periodicals, and co-hosts a reggae and world music radio show in Fredericton, New Brunswick, on Canada's east coast.