Brighter Day

by

Sizzla

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I don't think I should necessarily go into a big discussion about how the year is only 65 days old and Sizzla has one album now on the shelves and another set to be released in a few weeks. I don't think I should necessarily go into a big discussion about how he finished last year with an album in November, 2 summer albums a greatest hits album and an early fall album. I don't think I should necessarily go into a big discussion about how disturbingly prolific the artist is, so I won't.

Instead, I'll just talk about the music. The musical highlights here are without a doubt the combinations. Free Up the Prisoners is the long awaited track between Kalonji and prodige' Turbulence, pretty good message on the track and pretty much what one might expect from two high level artists, although I might have preferred them riding an Xterminator riddim instead. The other, perhaps even more interesting combination here features Sizzla with Vybz Kartel on Live Up. Live Up is more of a Kartel sounding gun toating tune than a Sizzla cut, but it's interesting to hear the 2 together and to hear Kartel on a simple one drop for a change. In terms of the best tune here completely, without a doubt, it's One Drop, a somewhat agressive knowledge tune that just gets better each time you listen to it. I'd also recommend the title track, Burn it Down and the crazy sounding Jah Knows.

Overall, Brighter Day is a fun album. It never seems to take itself too serious which is a problem Sizzla records have suffered from in the past, and I can imagine the artist probably wrote it, recorded it and doubled it in an afternoon (there are some pretty good shots in the liner notes). Its pretty good, not as good as its more spiritual predeccessor, Speak of Jah, but good dancehall nevertheless. I don't think I should necessarily talk about how a year from now I'll probably be writing a review for the 3rd Kingston Records album which is about a 99.99998% chance for 2006, so I won't, instead I'll just recommend Brighter Day as a decent Sizzla album.