For Your Consideration

Lloyd Brown (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 16, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Cousins
• ASIN: B002Y1L4PI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417,660 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Professor. . ., November 13, 2009

By 

Achis (Kingston, JA/Philipsburg, SxM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: For Your Consideration (MP3 Download)

How do you register INTELLIGENCE in terms of music? I'm sure somewhere there exists some big and beautiful and well regarded learning institution of music where graduates go on to be some of the most outstanding vocalists and players of instruments in the world, but how many times have you heard of the exact opposite of something like that? Think about your favourite singer and who may have taught them how to sing (I think more times it`ll be a `grandparent` rather than a music professor). Think about just how many musicians you know of who are genuine MASTERS at their craft, but haven't had very much, if any at all, formal training on their particular instrument(s). And now think about how many times you've found yourself vibing your favourite song and thinking `wow, this artist must have gotten their degree very quickly'. It just doesn't happen like that! And in Reggae music in particular, where so many of our artists (MOST of them) simply come from places and circumstances where the University route is just not an option, to not regard them as SMART, simply because they haven't risen through those ranks academically is really stupid in my opinion. In my opinion, I think that with something as NATURAL, yet UNIQUE as music, that intelligence is best measured in terms of examination of the overall artist, regardless of their scholastic prowess or lack thereof. There are quite a few artists on the scene today whose music, in my opinion, just comes with such a powerful sense of musical and just general acuity, that despite not meeting them and not even knowing of their schooling background, you just get the feeling that this person REALLY knows what's going on. They `get it'! I'll point to more recent artists (of course), like Queen Ifrica, like Tanya Stephens and, of course, Vaughn Benjamin of Midnite, amongst others (Lutan Fyah, Sizzla, Junior Kelly etc.) who just give off that vibes of brainpower and, really listening to their music, when at its best, can be like a learning session or a life experience. Another artist I have push into that class as someone who really exudes not only intelligence, but confidence in that intelligence as well is Mr. Lloyd Brown. Currently BY FAR my favourite artist checking in on the UK Reggae scene (biggup my next favourites also, Peter Spence and Bitty McLean and some new artists as well, more on one of them later), the venerable Brown makes a very specific type of vibes which, even when I don't necessarily enjoy a tune in particular, I can almost always see where he was going with it, which unfortunately is a VERY unique and downright rare quality to have. And I'll make the case that this is because, throughout his extremely long tenure making Reggae music (nearing thirty years now, he's basically been making Reggae for as long as I've been on earth), he has done so with a sense of CLASS and INTELLIGENCE that, at this point just comes across so well in his material and anytime he has something new to show to the world, I'd like to be one of the first to see it.

So what's so smart about this fellow, Lloyd Brown's music? Well, first of all (and of course, I don't use this as my only standard), to me it says something when I can basically lock someone in a studio and he/she can produce and sing for their own project in any way necessary, which is what Brown does and furthermore, he does it for other artists as well (and even has gone to downright STRANGE lengths I believe in producing and directing VIDEOS for himself and others also). And on the vibes, the first thing you get from Lloyd Brown's music definitely is a sense of the CLASS and quality of the work (again, even if you may not like a particular tune), but that same sense of quality is quickly overtaken, at least in my opinion, that you're dealing with someone who clearly knows what they're doing and truly capable of going about carrying it out as well. As a fairly recent fan of Brown's, within the last two years or so, I've almost been amazed at how quickly his music, new and old, has grown on me and this is so despite the fact that I had a less than `WOWED' reaction to his last album, Brownie Points, last year (which I described as essentially a `victory lap' of sorts following the HUGE album that was Silver in 2007), but I've been going through some of his back catalogue and while it's unsurprising that I enjoyed the music, the degree to which I've enjoyed a great deal of it has definitely been somewhat shocking (there're two albums he has, one is Deep and the other is Said & Done, both are BEAUTIFUL) and he`s also become one of my favourite and most `dependable` artists also. So, that being so, it isn't shocking at all, that I've essentially reserved a spot in my players for late every year now when Brown typically releases an album and this year is no different as he now brings forth an album, For Your Consideration Like each of Lloyd Brown's last three albums (to my knowledge), For Your Consideration comes through his own hand, produced by Brown's very own Riddimworks imprint and released by Donville Davis' UK based Cousins Records (who I don't think has been very active in 2009 and I'm so happy to see that they're still around, especially following the fall of Jet Star). This album is a very slight change on things to my opinion than what you typically hear from Lloyd Brown. By comparison to the Brownie Points record, it's BETTER, first of all and I think it has a little bit more discernible `bite' or an `edge' to it musically. Even on some of the slower songs, and there are many of course, be it either the way the tune is actually sung or vibed, or even the lyrical subjectry of it, you can really tell that Lloyd Brown had a point to make here. Does he make it? Of course he does. From beginning to end For Your Consideration is very impressive and every bit the album one would expect in 2009 from an artist of the experience and mental chops of Mr. Lloyd Brown.

The first `evidence' of this `edge' on Lloyd Brown's brand new album ("album #13"), For Your Consideration, is the intro, which downright CONFUSED me the first few times I spun through it. Don't make the mistake that I did by looking at that word "Intro" as an excuse not to pay serious attention here (as it normally is), because the intro isn't really an intro, it's a full tune. It, more or less, outlines Brown's intentions for the album and allows him to get some things off of his chest with the business side of the music. The piece also features lyrical gems such as "Some promoters and some producers, dem is nothing but demoters and reducers", and, "Certain players in the territories and markets, feel say them have the monopoly of the market. Mi a sing it long before them even talk it, ah di truth, ah nuh lie me a walk it", so, again I urge you to tread carefully and not skip the intro here definitely because it's one of the best tracks on the album. And if you do just listen too casually, you'll almost CERTAINLY miss the vibes of the fairly unassuming 'Survival', a tune which I think I may have had to listen to around ten times to REALLY get. This one points out EXACTLY what I mean when I say that you don't actually have to LOVE a Lloyd Brown song to see it's direction and overall quality. I don't love Survival, it's not one of my favourites on the album, but this tune is SWEET! It does have an edge to it (given the subjectry), but you won't know it AT ALL unless you really listen to the words. It sounds like a vague broken hearted lover's tune, but in my opinion, it actually turns out to be more of a social commentary of determination and who knows; it'll probably continue to grow on me quite a bit I suspect. Lastly in the opening lot of For Your Consideration is Brown's cut of Joe Frasier's Jah Live [aka Love Created I] riddim, 'Know Yourself' which is easily amongst the top tunes here. This tune, again, is just so well put together that you have to recognize its strength. With a very uplifting message (and a DOMINATING uplifting message at that, both urging confidence for the depressed and positivity for the negative living, simultaneously) and lyrically one of the most impressive efforts on the album, Know Yourself is a big winner, as is the opening in general.

As I said, For Your Consideration comes with its fair share of bite and that's evident on some of the bigger and more interesting tunes on the album. A tune like `Live The Life You Love' definitely fits into that category. The tune features the fire breathing UK veteran Sweetie Irie as well as another of my favourites from the area, the WICKED Chukki Star, alongside Brown. Any tune with the oddly named Irie (who sounds absolutely nothing like you might imagine) will inherently come with an edge, but this tune is GORGEOUS at the same time and I love how it goes from verse to verse, Starr to Irie in the middle of the tune. BIG! And then there's `Badboy' the second double combination on the album. This one features Brown alongside potentially BRILLIANT young UK talent Mr. Williamz and there's some dude named Jucxi D who I've NEVER heard of. The tune is a MASSIVE antiviolence piece and despite the fact that I couldn't point him out in a police lineup, Jucxi D actually does quite well alongside Mr. Brown and Mr. Williamz on the tune which, I'm sure, is going to catch quite a bit of attention and deservedly so (and Mr. Williamz is a SERIOUS young talent). There's also the incredibly interesting `Cold Blooded' which rides some very interesting update of Bob Marley's Natural Mystic riddim (at least to my ears), which is brilliant. It's an antiviolence tune, it's a tune about being careful, irony, just a whole heap of messages in there and it basically doesn't have a chorus, but it kind of does (you'll figure that out for yourself, it's a big tune though) with the telling of story after story to make this very powerful and downright MOVING aggregate of ideas... Read more ›