5.0 out of 5 stars
All The Way Strong In The Third World, February 24, 2010
Third World became one of the huge reggae bands when they hit big with their
You've Got the Power featuring the huge "Try Jah Love" written by Stevie Wonder. Even though the genres of funk and reggae seemed very seperated due mainly to the hard to ignore differences in complexity levels in the rhythms and arrangements. Well considering that Sly & Robbie were really beginning to milk the funk/reggae hybrid,especially with their productions on Grace Jones and such it was clear that the hybrid of the styles could work. Good news for the soulful,harmonizing nature of Third World's style. Now no ones going to mistaken songs like "Swing Low" and "Seasons When" with anything but standard issue pop-reggae even if they are pretty good songs. To be honest though,not to knock reggae's funk-like use of repetition but if the album continued on in this fasion the sound would've become boring fast. Luckily not only are Third World NEVER boring and that's pretty obvious with the hip-hop style vocorders/voice manipulation computers used for the vocal/rap style on the otherwise fairly convention skanky rhythm of "Love Is Out To Get You",a great fusion truthfully since reggae is one of the parents of hip-hop in general. "Come On Home" turns out to be really straight ahead 80's R&B/funk and is actually one of the stronger jams I've heard from the day,improving even on "Try Jah Love" in terms of sonics and production. It only gets better from there."Lagos Jump" brings it all into the equasion,a very early 80's variation on Afro disco-funk and to me is the strongest jam on the album. The title song and "Once There's Love" blend midtempo funky soul with a reggae-gospel chorus style for two really strong slower tunes. "Rock The Rave" has a strong new wave/reggae flavor that makes it the closest song on this album to Sly & Robbie type jam. When you match the reggae stylings with funk and the socially concious lyrics you have a music that actually could've been a reawakening of the all encompassing "united funk" style of the early 70's. Mainly it had it's success in the reggae and R&B worlds to a degree but was a great example of how funk and/or music with a message in general had for different reasons moved out of the mainstream of music.
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