Customer Reviews

Black Star

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i think this album is very good. the songs are all strong and songs like Give Thanks and Sunshine make it real special.
the best songs are:
World a Reggae Music
Poor Man's Cry feat. Jah Cure
I Understand
Give Thanks Feat. Ras Shiloh
Don't Buss Your Gun
Rastafari Crown
Sunshine

i had to give this album 5 stars even though Anthony B can do better. if it was anyone else singing it i would have giving 5 star so i had to do so here as well.

Anthony B has spent the greater part of his musical career trodding a road this somewhere between average and spectacular. He is one of the most consistent artists you will find anywhere. Perhaps what is truly spectacular about the artist is his consistency. Unlike his more publicized counterparts, he'll rarely dip into the average, or even below, into the experimental stage, his material always comes at a certain level and he could easily place a seal of quality guarantee on his music, the man just does not make bad music, he is consistently solid.

The album Black Star comes as totally unexpected, it is not normally the way of the label, Greensleeves, to release an artist's album who is not one of their own (unless his name is Sizzla), they have enough trouble putting out their own artist's material (Black Star becomes the first artist's album released by the label in 2005). So it was truly a good thing to see that they had not only put out an artist's album but a surefire winner such as Anthony B.

What you can say about Black Star is that it is truly a solid project. The best song is without a doubt the unique combination with the destructive voiced Jah Cure on Poor Man's Cry. They make for a very good pair and the song flows wonderfully. The other combination is with Ras Shiloh, who as normally performs more than adequately as he continues to invoke the spirit of the late great Garnett Silk in his style. Also love the forgiving and understanding I Understand on which the artist makes a plea for fairness as a cheating man with a cheating woman; love World a Reggae Music riding the soon to be timeless World Jam riddim; Praise Jah is also a big big tune.

Another tune that I really like is Black History. Anthony B dips into the dancehall over a nearly pure ska riddim and the song just really works as he says "Mek wi talk bout Bob Marley di hero of Jamaica country". Rastafari Crown also works late on the album as does Sunshine.

Overall, you can never really have too much Anthony B on the shelves. Black Star might be his best effort in a while, absolutely since 2003's Street Knowledge. There are no hints of a bad song, its a very cool project with the artist appearing more like a factory worker on his lunch break on the cover than a royal Bobo Rastafarian. Good from beginning to end. Its mandatory for fans of the artist and maybe a pretty good point to start for the less familiar.