CD: Rise Again
Artiste: Moomin
I SAW Moomin at the most recent 'Reggae Sumfest' and was immediately captivated by his smooth and for want of a better word, 'sweet' voice. I mean, the man's voice is ridiculous.
Listening to the nine songs on this set just sets that opinion in stone. The Japanese act's Rise Again starts out with the interestingly-titled I Have A Dream, which is pretty much old-school reggae. Half of the album is in Moomin's native Japanese, so I have not a clue what he is on about half the time, but the songs sound OK.
My only problem with the CD is the fact that after a while, despite how good it sounds, the songs begin to get a little wearing, since there is little in the way of variety.
On the flip side, Mr. Lex actually makes something of a surprisingly good appearance on a remake of Dionne Warwick's Don't Make Me Over track number six while on track four, Rise Again Tourama, who is also known as Zebraman, sounds uncomfortably like the incarcerated deejay. One Tiger imitator is quite enough, thank you very much.
Overall, Rise Again the CD is a decent listen, but not much more. It would have been nice to hear Moomin really exercise his vocal chops instead of allowing himself to get stuck in something of a rut, apparently constrained by what he thinks is expected of a reggae artiste, as opposed to doing some experimenting.
- Chaos
