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VOICEMAIL
Hey
Release date :
02-01-2006
Label :
Big Yard
Tracklist :
1. Fatima
2. Weddy Time
3. Ready To Party
4. Shake That Thing
5. Bring Ya Body Come
6. Back To Basic
7. Playing Games
8. Sign
9. Jamaican Jiggas
10. Feeling Good
11. Wacky Dip
12. Just Dance
13. Dance Floor
14. Crazy
15. Get On Up
16. Get Crazy
17. Crunked
18. Do It Again
19. One Wish
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REVIEW
Review written by Alexandre Tonus
on Tuesday, May 02nd 2006 - 12 588 views
Dancehall fans have probably already heard of Voice Mail over the past two years. This vocal trio, with its delicious harmonies and catchy flow, has often sprung a surprise on most of the big riddims of 2004 and 2005.
Unfortunately, this phenomenon will remain hard for the general public to get hold of for a while yet, since their first album, which has just come out on the Pony Canyon label, is a Japanese production reserved exclusively for that market for now, with an international release planned but no firm date. Still, the effort deserved a closer look, and it is with pleasure that we have dug into this first opus.
Taking up the group's catchphrase, the album is simply titled "Hey" and brings together a good selection of Voice Mail's very good singles. So we find Fatima on Tony Kelly's Katana riddim, Feeling good on Christopher Birch's My swing, or Wacky dip and Just dance, both on Don Corleon's Jonkanoo: all major tunes that already stood out when those riddims came out. Alongside them, there are also some tracks that went more unnoticed or came on slightly harder riddims (Crazy on the Gangsta rock, Bring ya body come on the Sweat, Get on up on the Ice breaka and Get crazy on the El toro).
Reggae is not left out, with Playing games on the well-known Cry baby riddim or the very good Jamaican jiggas on the Return, a version of the Stop that train riddim revisited by Shaggy's Big Yard label. Sign, one of the original songs on this record, is also a delicious and highly accomplished reggae tune.
The remaining songs are also originals written especially for the album and for the most part prove the potential and versatility of the three friends. Weddy time and Ready to party with Delly Ranks and Ding Dong are songs perfectly in tune with the times, specialities of Voice Mail or Elephant Man, which are big in Jamaica. These tracks, which you could call "dance songs" to sum up the concept, consist of repeating the names of the latest dance crazes in time with the rhythm while performing them. Shake that thing and Dance floor, although more original in their composition, share the same theme, and the jingle that opens and closes the latter confirms the central place dance holds in the Voice Mail universe: "Everybody cyan dance, but a nuh everybody a dancer".
Finally, with titles such as Back to basic, Crunked and Do it again, Voice Mail show that they are just as comfortable and effective on more hip-hop themes. They even flirt with soul influences on the superb final track, One wish, which revives the good old Jamaican tradition of vocal trios. In that vein, it is a pity that their superb cover of the Paragons' Memories by the score does not appear.
To conclude, then, this is a most complete album which, without being the album of the year, proves to be a real little gem. As good to play on repeat at home as to liven up a party, it is a record you could buy with your eyes closed... Let us only hope that it will one day get the distribution and media coverage it deserves.
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frenchement le riddim du son de la piste et 4 et trop malalalalalalalde foss et big up
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