Search - Sizzla :: Stay Focus

Robbed...but satisfied all the same.

Kader A. Shoman | Tampa, Fl | 09/16/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, I never regret buying any of Sizzla's album, and I would like to think I have them all, but it's hard to tell. At last count I was at 24 solo ventures. Counting the Toe 2 Toe type ventures, who knows.



I do however feel robbed. Buying cd's nowadays is not cheap, especially world music where you don't get the opertunity to take advantage of cheaper release prices as you can do with many of todays "artists". I was very upset when listenning to "Focused" to realized that 4 of the tunes on the cd are from 'Light Of My World"! Not only that, but as has happenned before on a Sizzla albums, the name of one of the tracks was changed! Same tune - different name. That really pisses me off! The advantage is that the repeated tracks are good ones and benefits from VP's superior mastering.



No Blemish becomes Girlfriend, Mine & Only remains Mine & Only, Thinking About You remains Thinking About You and Whole Heap A Woman remains Whole Heap A Woman.



Anyway, with that off my chest, I'll reiterate that no Sizzla album goes unpurchased. Period. At the same time, with such a stong album title, I was expecting much better. Not necessarily another "Da Real Thing", but a more "focused" [sorry] Sizzla.



To quench that thirst, I bought Chuck Fender's release "Better Days". Unfortunately it's not available on Amazon."

Does Anyone Really Care Anymore? Yeah

Achis | Kingston, JA/Philipsburg, SxM | 08/30/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"One of music's most pertinent mysteries may be exactly how a slight Jamaican reggae artist named Sizzla Kalonji is able to release 5-6 albums a year without his sales dropping significantly on any of them. The first thing for a new reggae label to do is seemingly to get out a Sizzla album.

Stay Focus becomes Sizzla's first full length VP Records followup to 2002's megahit Da Real Thing (Da Real Followup?)And NOPE, its not nearly as good as that album, but that doesn't mean that its garbage either, its predecessor was legendary. Stay Focus' biggest problem is that Sizzla pretty much goes as hard as he possibly can on just about every tune, occassionally when he slows it up he finds magic, he also finds it hard at times, but I would guess that its a result of his sickening level of rhyming over Xterminator riddims over the years (the man could problem give you about 3 new tunes on X riddims he's never heard before if you awoke him from his sleep one night.

The best tune here is one on which he does actually go hard, the opener Psalm 8, enteresting way in which that tune was built. Also like We're the Ones, probably the best tune lyrically on the album, like the closer Jah Will Must Be Done, Stageshow (incredible tune to hear live), Thinking About You, the title track and Original.



Overall, for fans of the artist, this album is somewhere between the Light of My World album and the Be I Strong Album: With the pace of the LOMW album (with which it shares the tune Whole Heap a Woman) and the direction of the BIS album. Either way, yeah its another Sizzla album, you know what you're getting, and you already know if you want it or not."

Stay Focus - A good title...

J. Prescott | 08/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"What can I say ? Sizzla releases more than 3 albums per year. They aren't all going to be gold...but what we have here is better than average Sizzla. Harder and faster beats along with his charged vocal stylings. There are parts where Sizzla seems to miss a beat with his vocals, and parts where his beat lacks creativity. His lyrics seem to have a positive vibe and he gives a great love song on track 8 "Mine and Only".



With an exception of 2 selective tracks, I enjoyed all the songs. They compare this to "Da Real Thing", the previous release to "Stay Focus". I enjoyed Stay Focus more...it kept my attention and had more energy than DRT. However, DRT sounds like Sizzla put more time, effort and creativity into the actual song writing. So, with that in mind, I like this album the best. But all of his releases have their own flavor. You must decide for yourself!"