For those unaware, reggae star Alborosie has today released his 8th solo studio album entitled For The Culture. The 14-track production covers themes of cultural pride, as evidenced in the title track For The Culture, triumph over hardships created by the pandemic (Unprecedented Time), the relief and ease some experience when they add marijuana to their meditation (Never Let Me Down) and the love shown while helping a loved one out of a difficult time (Out Of The Darkness).

All songs were written, produced, and performed by Alborosie using vintage analogue gear, dub sirens, reel‐to‐reel tape, and live instrumentation. Guest performers on the project are Collie Buddz, Jo Mersa Marley (Ready), Quino of Big Mountain (Where Do You Go) and Wailing Souls (Life To Live).

The release is accompanied by multiple music videos for the focus tracks and singles with a series of visualizers dubbed Visual-i-Jahs, conceived and directed by Alborosie and long-time creative partner Tony Fisher, to support the release.

This latest album is a bold statement and an authoritative command all at once – no holds barred – he’s roaring out for the culture. From paying tribute to his adoptive homeland with shouts‐out to Jamaica’s Culture Minister Babsy (Olivia Grange) and Brogad (Prime Minister Andrew Holness) to collaborations with foundation artistes Wailing Souls on a revision of their 1978 hit (Jah Give Us) Life To Live we know what Alborosie represents.

1. For The Culture
2. Challawa
3. Ginal (feat. Collie Buddz)
4. Bun A Fyah
5. Ready (feat. Jo Mersa Marley)
6. Out Of The Darkness
7. The System
8. Never Let Me Down
9. Unprecedented Time
10. Life To Live (feat. Wailing Souls)
11. Break My Chains
12. Listen To The Waves
13. Walking
14. Where Do You Go? (feat. Big Mountain)

Opening on the magnificently fresh reggae pop bounce of the title track and the mid-tempo hipway of Challawa, next up is the smooth dub step of Ginal (featuring Collie Buddz), the rhythmic Bun A Fyah, the simply mesmerizingly opulent Ready (featuring Jo Mersa Marley, the son of Stephen Marley and grandson of reggae musician Bob Marley), and then we get both the effortlessly orchestrated Out Of The Darkness and the, at times, twistingly distorted, at others vocally embracing The System.

Up next is the emphatic melodies of Never Let Me Down and the Marley-esque hipsway of Unprecedented Time, which are in turn followed by two of my own personal favorites here on this new album, the rhythmic refrains of both Life To Live (featuring Wailing Souls) and the hypnotic dips and swells of Break My Chains, the come the gently distorted vocals of the mid-tempo outreach heard on Listen To The Waves, the album rounding out on the traditional reggae beats of Walking, closing on the euphorically charged ponderings of Where Do You Go? (featuring Quino of Big Mountain).

Alborosie - For The Culture | Official Music Video

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