Artist: Benjamin Zephaniah

Album: Naked

Label: One Little Indian Records

Tracks: 11

Review By: Jacob Gehman

 

Benjamin Zephaniah is rather hard to pin down as an artist. In the music world he is known for his reggae albums. He has been a poet for most of his life and has many published works. He has spoken at political rallies and as a child shared his poetry with his local church. All in all a rather energizing career to this point. For “Naked” Zephaniah wanted to switch things up a bit and enlisted the help of Trevor Morais. Morais’ ability to construct beats results in an album that rides the line between spoken word, hip-hop, and techno.

 

However, where the music of most techno-influenced albums feel very cold and detached from existence, “Naked” is vibrant with life and beliefs. They may not either your or my beliefs, but in the context of the album they feel important and give the listener something to cling to. There are a few places where the instruments on the album take on a Sufjan Stevens (“Enjoy Your Rabbit” era) feel, especially on the song “Rong Radio Station.”

 

The biggest weakness of “Naked” is the vocal delivery. For someone who apparently has as much experience as Zephaniah in using his voice, both in the musical and speaking context, it comes as rather a surprise. He gets louder at points, but really lacks the energy—neigh, the urgency—that I would think that his poetry should inspire, particularly when I imagine him speaking at a rally and working the crowd into a frenzy. Nevertheless, what his voice fails to provide the music does a competent job of glossing over to make it a less crucial failure.

 

When listened to from more of a techno (or, perhaps even a hip-hop) view point the lyrical aspects fade and the focus is on the album flow and not the poetry and it’s delivery. Which create a very strong, intriguing listen. Each song has it’s own flow, as does the entire album. Any album that can be successful with both individual song flows, and that of the whole cd, definitely cannot be scoffed at. However, it would be ideal if Zephaniah, as a poet, had been able to do a better job of highlighting his words.