Customer Reviews

Confused Times

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Musically speaking, Anthony B's latest album on the street, Confused Times is one of his better albums, and that's saying a lot for an artist who routinely goes about 2-3 deep a year. No he's not as bad as Sizzla, Luciano and Turbulence, but Anthony B's been a very busy Bobo on the album circuit.

Confused Times is much more of a harder edge than more recent albums such as the wonderful Black Star. It has some intense highlights and only one or two sore spots (such as the odd chorus on Push and the ridiculously disco saturated sound of Can't Take My Eyes Off You, a combination with sickly voiced Shocking Vibes singer Ghost) and at the end of it you come away pretty satisfied as a fan of the artist.

The best tune here is probably the sharp Simple Something, just a very focused Anthony B over a hardcore dancehall riddim working marvelously ("Mi no laugh show dimple, smile show pimple, fugitive lak Richard Kimble"). Also check the aimed (at those not so popular amongst Rastas) Jamaica (which i confess I actually really like, so what you will when you hear it). Also love Rasta a combination with an unknown songstress which works well under the typical she-prefers-a-Natty type of vibe, nice tune. Also like the title track and Lock It Up.

Again, this is only musically speaking, but when you hear the track Never Give it Up, you'll find one of the most appealing reasons to listen to Confused Times. The song is actually a combination between Anthony B, Turbulence and Bushman (I'm assuming because of the singer's mannerisms, but it could be Luciano or Natty King for that matter, if you know their styles you know exactly what I mean). It is a big big tune and easiy one of the album's best.

Of course you wouldn't know that by looking at the tracklist or the liner notes. Why not? Because its a Penitentiary Records release. The same company who unashamedly, early this year released the same album twice, Sizzla's Burning Fire, once with all older tracks on it from older albums and the 'correction' with just 4-5 tracks on it from older albums. (Ohhhhhh way to go Penitentiary) Confused Times' tracklist is confused:

The album is even programmed with the incorrect tracklist, so tracks 1-5 are actually
Lock it Up
Push
Scream
Cant Take My Eyes Off You (featuring Ghost)
No Surrender, No Retreat

Tracks 11-15 are actually
Never Give It Up (ft. Turbulence & Bushman)
Moment Been Waiting For
Rasta
Dem Bun
Moment Been Waiting For (hip-hop remix)

And of course the geniuses at Penitentiary give the only writing credit to producer Kemar Mcgregor, think Anthony B might have a problem with giving a producer credit for his lyrics? So do I.

So again, musically speaking, no problem here, Anthony B and whoever produced it (probably McGregor) did their job fine, Penitentiary just had a confused time putting it all together.

Overall, nice vibes throughout threatened to be ruined by shady project management and shady operations from a record label who just honestly does not deserve the vibes of such great artists that they release, shame on Penitentiary, biggups to Anthony B.