Queen Ifrica - Climb (VP Records)

While certainly not all tracks on 'Climb' could convince ('Lie Dem Ah Tell' will probably be able to convince dancehall lovers, but simply wasn't for us, and 'Good Man' just sounded a little too corny), the track list contains enough top tunes to make this album worth your attention. The soulful 'I Can't Breathe' (containing part of the famous negro spiritual 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot') is an indictment of the continuing police violence in the United States, the infectious ska-tune 'Rebellion' is an ode to a number of past revolutions, and in 'Black Woman' she calls on her gender peers not to be fooled by fashion trends and to try to just be themselves. If you want to know who the real heroines of Queen Ifrica are, then listen to 'Ask Me Granny'. And then we haven't even addressed opener 'Trueversation', a duet with none other than Damian Marley, making it a statement in itself. We conclude with a quote from Ifrica herself: "These songs come to me as I am watching the world; I see myself as a social worker that uses music as my tool because music is the greatest weapon to impact societal change, to help young people to understand themselves more."