Queen Ifrica - Breath Of Life (Nuh Rush Records)

IamNuhRush, in turn, called on Jamaican sound engineers Colin 'Bulby' York and Jason 'J-Vibe' Farmer, with, among others, Kirk 'Kirkledove' Bennett and Clifton 'Johnny' Clarke on drums, Duwayne 'Shotta' Hoilett on guitar, and Llamar 'RifRaf' Brown on bass and keyboards.

Queen Ifrica: "Working on this album was my absolute pleasure. I completely and totally enjoyed every moment of the process – the people I got to work with, the record label I'm a part of. The energy, every time we met in the studio to do the recordings, was always on the highest of frequencies. I'm so humbled and honored that the project is finally here, about to be released to a beautiful audience of music lovers all over the world. I pray that it will bring comfort to the listener's ears, joy to the spirit, and all the different emotions that I shared in the album will be accepted with a wholesomeness that is unexplainable."

The only track on 'Breath Of Life' not produced by IamNuhRush is the opening title track, an acoustic number written by none other than Stephen Marley.

In terms of subject matter, the album can roughly be divided into three sections. The first tracks deal with love and relationships. With themes such as ganja ('My Highgrade', built around a relick of Johnny Osbourne's 'Love Is Universal'), God ('Excellent Jah') and Africa (the nyahbinghi-driven 'Weeping Willow'), we dive headfirst into Rastafari teachings, while the next two tracks on 'Breath Of Life' turn the focus to motherhood.

In 'Mom Like Me', Ifrica movingly describes the suffering a mother can endure, before introducing us to her children Tanzie, Malawi and Imeru Tafari in the aptly titled 'New Version Of Me'. They also feature on the track, which unfolds over a melody vaguely reminiscent of Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me'.

With 'Change The World', Queen Ifrica makes another plea for the power of love, stating: "Love can fix the war between Ukraine and Putin!", among other things. Closing track, the hiphop-flavoured 'Lanton (Lantern)', casts a proverbial light into the darkness of modern-day Babylon and will undoubtedly be the moment in Ifrica's live sets when smartphones and lighters are raised high.

If we really wanted to nitpick, we could point out that the cover artwork of 'Breath Of Life' is somewhat uninspired. Other than that, Queen Ifrica delivers an almost flawless performance here, resulting in a more than excellent album!