Customer Reviews

Brighter Day

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To me this seems like the complete opposite of the conscious sizzla everyone loves. Just because he sometimes has a harsh delivery doesnt' mean he has to go into detail about such harsh topics. there are a few okay tracks on it but most of is below his usual standard. When I first heard the song Murderer, i thought there could be no way Sizzla is singing with a guy rapping about "POP- POP".

I have mixed feelings about this album. If you like the louder more explicit side of Sizzla this is a good one. If, like me, you admire the more spiritual and sensitive side of Sizzla, this album falls short. There are some positive aspects but criticisms come first.
The first track 'murderer' is ironically humurous when one thinks of his songs such as 'explain to almighty' and 'love is all'. The lead track always sets a certain tone for an album, and this one does not suit an irie mood. The title of this cd is somewhat misleading - 'brighter day' is not the first thing I think of when listening to rude boy songs about killing and rough sex.
With that off my chest, there are a few exceptional tracks. 'Jah Knows' is my favorite track on this album because of its originality and melody. 'Dig it out' is artistic and uses the same rhythm as the previous mentioned track. 'Live up' and the title track 'brigher day' are both worth taking your time to listen to. The rest of the cd is mediocre at best.

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.

Like the title above indicates, I'm not a big fan of this release. All of Sizzla's albums have a place on my CD shelves but this one gathers the most dust. The central problem is that so many tracks are ill-advised or just plain awful.

It starts right up front with the very weak opener "Murderer" - not only is this the 1,000,000th dancehall song by that name (and this one's a far cry from Buju Banton's much superior "Murderer"), every other aspect of it is bad or uninspired, from the comical hip hop beat to the over-the-top slack lyrics to the horrifying guest rapper. After that we get one strong track in "One Day" - one of the few rootsy songs on this release - and then on to an even worse slice of crap than "Murderer," which is the awful title cut. The hip hop beat is Casio-worthy, and when the backup singers start crooning saccharine melodies (including the word "Kalonji" over and over), it's enough to make you gag. Not an auspicious start. Usually Sizzla's albums pack the best cuts up front; "Brighter Day" is the rare exception that starts with two of the worst songs.

After that it actually gets somewhat better. "Jah Knows" is an eerie, hypnotic tune thanks to the weird riddim and Sizzla's low-key, trance-like melody. "Burn It Down" is an alright roots tune, although the melody is weak by Sizzla standards, and the lyrics are rather uninspired anti-Babylon boilerplate. "Free Up The Prisoners" is a classic Sizzla roots song, though, and the best track on the album by far. It has a fierce vibe, buoyant tune, and strong lyrics. (It's so good, in fact, that for a while I forgot it was on this album, which I hold in pretty low regard. For another - maybe slightly better - version of the same song, check out the "Voice of Jamaica" compilation.)

Then we move into a weird section of the CD. "Don't Be Ashamed" is an odd, uptempo tune with a Latin vibe and some R&B vocals; it wouldn't sound out of place on the eclectic "Rise to the Occasion" album. "Sexual Appeal" is in a not-dissimilar vein. Then "Dig It Out!" recycles the same riddim from "Jah Knows" to lesser effect (two tunes on the same riddim on one album? Odd choice, guys). "Nuff Girls" is a strong-enough, totally slack dancehall cut - the type of thing that Sizzla releases fifty of every year. Then somehow "Dangerous" ups the slackness quotient by a factor of about one million, and basically features Sizzla rambling about killing people for three hook-free minutes, but at least the music is kind of funky. I'm torn between loving this track and thinking it's 100% concentrated awfulness. The album ends on a weird note with the roots/hip hop hybrid "Live Up" and Sizzla singing "Kill them like some f***in' dogs, better believe it!" A suitably bizarre and slack ending to the album.

If this review boils down to the usual track-by-track style, it's only fair: "Brighter Day" generally feels like a collection of songs rather than any kind of album. It would be more of a unified whole only if you removed the two or three best songs from it, which would weaken its replay value pretty seriously. My suggestion: Sizzla completists should own it, everyone else should stay away. And whoever you are, rip it to your PC so you can skip the worst half and go to the good tunes like "Free Up The Prisoners" and "Jah Knows." You may eventually develop a soft spot for some of the other tunes (I have) but if you end up liking "Murderer" or "Brighter Day," there's no hope for you.