Search - Turbulence :: Stronger Than Before

Better Than Before. . .

Achis | Kingston, JA/Philipsburg, SxM | 04/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Following a rather rocky 2006 and early 2007 on the album circuit, reggae prodigy Turbulence returns just 2 and a half months after his `07 debut, the very average Do Good, with what is probably his strongest effort in about four years, the aptly titled Stronger Than Before. Turbulence's albums for 2006 seemed to just overall lack strength and flare; The first album, No Sell Out (aka Born For This) was easily the best of the year and is still probably on the outside (albeit very close), looking in at Turbulence's 5 best album of his career; His second release, Notorious: The Album was probably his most anticipated to date and came and went as a virtual blip on the screen doing virtually no damage and actually appeared quite rushed on the part of the label, VP; Turbulence's last offering of the year, the ambitious X-Girlfriend for TAD's showed great promise in its 18 tracks but in retrospect didn't live up to the expectations, not only of it as an album (following Anthony B's very solid Suffering Man for the same label, and in retrospect it proceeded the North American release of Perfect's debut album, Giddimani on the label as well, which was even better) or the expectations which Turbulence now carries as one of the most talented and respected young reggae talents going today. They all lacked the strength of earlier album highlights such as Rising, Hail to the King, The Future and my personal favorite from the artist, the MASSIVE Join Us. Stronger Than Before, however comes armed with the proper `pedigree' to return fans to the vibes of those earlier albums from the artist who through his hard hard work over the years has become one of the most in demand (and most watched) talents in Jamaica.



Stronger Than Before comes to the masses courtesy of the two companies of the moment. Handling the distribution for the album is the Cousins label who is currently pushing some of the finest roots material available anywhere these days. Besides Stronger Than Before, this year alone, Cousins has released an early candidate for album of the year, Lutan Fyah's You Bring Blessings and on this very same day which Stronger Than Before comes forward, also pushing forth is Luciano's latest release, the masterful God is Greater Than Man, so definitely Cousin is doing very very big thing in reggae music. The production on the album is almost a given. To anyone having been consistently picking up reggae releases, the riddims here (and actually Byron Murray's overall style of production) should be very very familiar. Following producing releases in the last year alone for artists such as Norris Man, Jah Mason and the aforementioned Luciano and Lutan Fyah, Byron Murray's In The Streetz continues to push top notch vibes for the music and have finally dropped the release for Turbulence (just looking at their song lineup, by virtue of how many tracks have been recorded by a particular artist, you can probably expect a Sizzla album as well any day now). It has been my experience that Turbulence will generally excel on the type of riddims and vibes which allow him to explore his entire style; that is, give him the foundation to sing, chant, rap, do and just generally adlib as well, which is what he `grew up' on voicing for Fattis at Xterminator. While Stronger Than Before focuses more on the roots, Murray's ever expanding vault of vibes also gives Turbulence a nice setting to create a very powerful album.



Which is exactly what he did. Although, as I mentioned, the album moves at a slower pace on a whole, Turbulence finds a way to extract every style in which he is well versed and does a fine job. He also goes back and seems to recapture his underrated lyrical ability. After a 2006 which seemed as if the best thing for the overworked 27 year old Kingston native would be a vacation, and the first shot of 2007 being an increasingly frustrating work of mediocrity in Do Good (largely due to his producer on that album milking old deceased vibes), Stronger Than Before is a wonderfully welcome addition to Turbulence's ever expanding catalogue (by my count it becomes his 17th studio album, combine that with the fact that outside of Sizzla, Kartel and probably Jah Cure there is no artist in JA more active on the mix-tape circuit) and thankfully he's back to writing good lyrics, not just the virtual cookie cutter `Praise Jah' `Fyah Bun!' `Baby I Love You/Come back to me' style vibes which he got through the majority of `06 with pushing on albums. Need a bit of proof? Check the rather clever build of the title track over Murray's divine old school styled Desperate Lover riddim. Stronger, the song, begins as a nice ode to the pillaring artists of yesteryear and the music and changes to a song for the youths and is a praise tune all at the same time, its actually one of the better built and arranged tracks I've ever heard from the artist and would definitely love to hear him expound on it in the future (it actually reminds me of the wonderful Based on a True Story from the Join Us album). Definitely one to be checked.



As an album, Stronger Than Before, is exactly that, stronger than the few albums which came before it. The album hits is high water mark in the middle beginning with track 4, the album's best piece Play Hard Ball. Play Hard Ball almost shows everything which is solid about the artist. It flows nicely over the Number Tree riddim which is a big and lush guitar heavy roots riddim which doesn't exactly drive itself as a hard and forceful vibes, but Turbulence has that ability to push it and make it become exactly that and it was the tune on the album that made me come back to it several times before moving on. The tune isn't exactly bridging a new lyrical gap for the artist, as it is that `Babylon soon fall' type of tune, but again, the way it is presented and arranged makes it a winner (and the occasional yet lovely female backing doesn't hurt at all either). Check immediately after Play Hard Ball for a track which pushes the vibes in a different direction, the excellent love track, Reconsider over Murray's unnamed riddim which I always find myself trying to find the name of. . ., but its excellent, and again, nothing different than what you're used to from the artist (in this case, `baby come back to me') but Reconsider is more introspective as he almost appears to be upset with himself and lamenting the mistake he made, just a slight lyrical twitch making the track a winner and I would LOVE to see a live performance of the track with my Empress on my arm. And when I saw the title of the following track, Love Can Make, my eyes got wide as I envisioned a remake of early Turbulence hit, Love Can Make a Difference, this song is different (and not as strong) but still very solid.



Besides the middle jump up of vibes on Stronger Than Before check the one and only (yet obligatory) combination on the album, Prayer is Power with his group of friends and young artists Higher Trod. I'm always interested in hearing the group get a chance over the vibes (largely due to the fact that the Join Us album was pretty much a complete combination between Turbulence and Higher Trod) and Prayer is Power doesn't disappoint at all. Turbulence takes but one verse (and sings the hook) and gives others the chance to shine and shine they do and I'm probably most impressed by Prince Javed, seemingly the most active member of the Higher Trod Family not named Turbulence who comes off as a more impassioned version of Turbulence's uncle, Norrisman, at times (and even kind of looks like him!), but Javed doesn't disappoint leading the charge on Prayer is Power, the best JAH praising track on Stronger Than Before and one of the album's finest efforts overall (now if I can get like a Javed album or something, that would be nice. . .).



Stronger Than Before does an excellent and unexpected thing at the end. The final three tracks are all relatively strong dancehall tracks, a very welcome addition to one of Turbulence's slower albums (it actually probably most reminds me of a very very strong version of the Songs of Solomon album). The first of the three is probably the track that is most I'm most familiar with, I've Been Around, one of the strongest tracks over Murray's hit Bounce riddim. The second dancehall track (and the strongest) Di Ting (and the slackest) (yes dat `ting') over Murray's re-lick of the exceptional Mudd Up riddim shows Turbulence can do that kind of hardcore dancehall when needed and that riddim. . . If you only buy a few riddim albums, make sure you pick up the Return of the Mudd Up, love that riddim. Lastly is the solid I'm Not Afraid over the crazy hit Hot Wuk riddim. I'm Not Afraid is nearly as good as Di Ting and it even further shows Turbulence's ability as, lyrically, it's a pure roots track do style like a dancehall track over a dancehall riddim, very nice effort. My only regret at the end is that they didn't throw in the older, yet exceptional Hype in Jah over Murray's forgotten Forensic riddim, yeah it's a few years old now, and I imagine at the time, the strictly dancehall outfit never imagined putting out an album from the young Bobo, but I still looooooooove Hype in Jah.



Overall, definitely one of the `strongest' albums of Turbulence's career to date. I love the mix of vibes and Murray doesn't hit the same pitfall that Brotherman (producer of the Do Good album) hit. His vibes from the past year or two still have the fresh appeal to them (now if it's the beginning of 2008 and he's pushing a Capleton or Anthony B album with the same vibes then we might have a problem) and hearing Turbulence voice them doesn't detract from the fact that they are still very solid vibes. Stronger Than Before maybe a watershed moment for Turbulence, besides pushing mediocrity over the last year, he spent a lot of time in the tabloids due to a high profile separation with ex-girlfriend, DJ Sasha (and then a high profile exchange of lyrical jabs, and then a high profile lyrical reconciliation). However, should he return to pushing high quality music and push out the next big hit, it is likely that most fans and critics alike will quickly forget all of that and rediscover the artist. Because even though Stronger Than Before is a very very strong album, it doesn't even begin to show the true promise of one of the most untapped talents Jamaica has seen in a very long time."