Consumer Guide Album

Pablo Moses: Pave the Way [Mango, 1981]
It's the same for Sly & Robbie as for Stax-Volt, Gamble & Huff, or for that matter Richard Perry--if a great studio style is going to break out of its formula and zap the listener, the record had better offer identification, inspiration, or hooks. But me, I'm no Rasta, or any other kind of theist or cultural nationalist; are you? And the gain in vocal competence strikes me as a dangerous thing--because Moses always "projects" now, he deprives his basic singsong of the nursery-rhyme lucidity that makes his best work so winning. B