Customer Reviews

Sense of Purpose

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

 

 

As far as I can hear this is one of Third World's finest musical moments of the 80's. The year was 1985 and along with the huge success of UB40 at the time with Live Aid and We Are The World having had come out at during the period the sounds and messages of the Afro-Caribbean culture had regained strong meaning. There was also the sound of R&B/pop/funk of the day with synthesizers,strong grooves and drum machines that everywhere at this time. You could hear it on the previous Third World album All the Way Strong but on this album the band managed to create music that would make both fans of UB40's Labour of Love as well as a Kool & The Gang album such aEmergency. It's only fitting than that K&TG's Amir Bayyan makes guests on synthesizers,as well as Mtume since both of them have the same understanding of mid 80's funk and afro caribbean styles as well. The result is that none of the songs on this album sound exactly like conventional reggae but it's there and this functions as great 80's funk too. "One To One" finds an excellent groove that actually conjurs up a sultry flavor that is strongly influenced by the excellent music Sade was releasing during this same time. The title song and "One To One" both have a very Minneapolis via Kingston kind of electro funk groove and both are mixed by Shep Petribone for the maximum effect. Some of the songs such as "World Of Uncertsainly",the popular "Can't Get You (Outta My Mind)" and the superb "Reggae Jam Boogie" have the most pronounced island flavor but the 80's flavor is still present and it makes a great blend of styles that doesn't date the sound of the songs. Amir Baayan produced and played on "One To One",another high octane uptempo funk jam with a good somewhat extended lengh for a great part flavor. "Children Of The World" blends reggae,afrobeat and funk to near perfection and is again a great example of 80's contemporary styled music with a genuine,meaningful message set to music that brings it's point of world peace and unity right home. The slower "Rock Me" and "How Can You" both provide great cool downs to the powerful proceedings and 'Girl Froom Hiroshima" brings an Asian sound into it-another aspect I like about 80's music. The album ends on the pretty straight ahead acapella afrobeat of "One Song (Nyahbinghi)". There was a lot of music during this era that fell flat I have to admit but even so because of Third World's own homegrown flavors and willingness to reach out to broader audiences really shows how even during this particular moment in time how much of that 70's funk/reggae/message song flavor was still left in the broad frame of pop music.

Let's be realistic, compared to previous work; "96 Degrees In The Shade", "Journey To Addis", "Rock The World", & "You've Got The Power", this album would fall into the "sellout" category. Then again this is the same group who made albums like the easily forgotten "Arise In Harmony", and forgotten for a pretty good reason, since it did lack more of a Roots style like it's previous albums like "96 Degrees In The Shade" & "Journey To Addis". So to most Third World fans who dealt with their "Arise In Harmony" album, wouldn't find this much of a disappointment, but nevertheless some what of a disappointment.

First thing's first, this album mainly speaks about two things; Love & Dancing, some songs speak about one, some about the other, and some about both. The only song that stops the continuous topics in it's tracks is "Children Of The World", which is an pretty okay song, but if they were going to make this the only song about peace and politics, they could of done a lot better. If Steel Pulse Could of did it with "Earth Crisis", I'm pretty sure Third World could of done the same with this album.

Secondly, track listing could of been mixed better, the beginning of the album seems to have a bit of a slow feeling to it, but how can't it be when you have "World Of Uncertainty" & "Rock Me" as track 3 & 4? I also never got why didn't they put the Extended Version of "One To One", at the end of the album as a bonus track. So basically if this were a tape, both sides A & B would start off with "One To One", which doesn't make any "Sense" at all.

Although there are some flaws there are some upsides to this album. This albums does contain hits like; "How Can You", "World Of Uncertainty", "Rock Me", and of course "Sense Of Purpose". Let's not stop there tho, there are a couple of great songs that are not known as "hits" and are over looked, "Reggae Jam Boogie" & "Can't Get You (Outta My Mind)", to me, are the BEST songs on the albums, but never get any credit. Sadly both songs does not have Bunny Rugs on lead, but you can't have the limelight all the time, but we still love him tho.

So this album isn't bad, but it isn't all that great either, in fact I don't know how it did better than their next album "Hold On To Love", but I'll save that for another review. It has it's up's but a few downs, yet it's downsides aren't that bad. If you're a fan of Third World that fell in love with them because of albums like "You've Got The Power" & "96 Degrees In The Shade", this is really not up your alley, but if you would like to wing it, go ahead. It's not that bad of an album, but when I listen to it, I don't hear the same band who made "96 Degrees In The Shade", but maybe that was their plan all along.

Oh yeah if anyone out there have more than one copy of Third World's self titled debut album, don't be stingy, sell it....to me!

***1/2

-D.J. Winston

When I think of Reggae I tend to think of Bob Marley, and for good reason, he is the "Elvis" of Reggae! Sonically alot of Reggae can sound alike, like one long song having that same beat with the guitar plunk consistently following immediately right after the beat. I know this is hard to describe but that is what I tend to think when I describe it, I just "beat box" it popping my lips and singing "dank" for the guitar going something like this at about 85 bpm "pop" "dank" "pop" "dank"
"pop" "dank" "pop" "dank" "pop" "dank" (each "pop") is the beat and the "dank" is the guitar.
Ok enough already. So what do I like about Third World? Well firstly they blow off the "pop" "dank"
"pop" "dank" "pop" "dank" "pop" "dank" routine in favor of giving you some rhythm & blues and dance influence. My first introduction to Third World was their rendition of "Now That We've Found Love". I do not even know what the original artist's version sounds like but I have always enjoyed TW's rendering and to me it's the one I know as it it were the only version. From this album, One To One is a beat heavy mid-tempo dance arrangement. Sense of Purpose is an uptempo dance-funk tune while One More Time is more along the lines of dance/R&B. Now while these songs are dancey, they do not seemingly leave their reggae roots.
I guess you can say it's more of a contemporary sounding reggae opposed to the folkish type of Bob Marley.

I like it!

"Cause you and me, together / We will be, forever / Feeling as one, yeah. One to one."

Jamaican-tinged songs that catch you and take you to the Islands... Sense of Purpose delivers fairly mellow reggae in an accessible format. The first two tracks are the strongest-- listen to either and you'll get a sense of the entire CD. Good stuff, plain and simple.

Great service. Product came fast and in better condition than I expected. Will buy again.

I am anti-reggae, not for any other reason than, I do not enjoy mainstream popular music. I find
myself prone to listening to quality music as opposed to quantity music. Therefore, record labels
would not find me to be in their best interests.

I found Third World to be surprisingly enjoyable. The overall sound is
both rhythmic and yet soulful. I am by nature a fan of opera, specifically Italian performers.
I have travelled all around the world and listened to a diversified class of music, from Greek to
American Pop, all of which can be enjoyable. However, Reggae has never interested me other than
UB40, and that is mainly because I am English.

Very enjoyable and well-suited to long drives if you'd like something to keep you awake.

My hat's off to this group, I can truthfully claim real enjoyment for tasteful music which is both
musically enjoyable and clean.