Soldiers Of Jah Army - Poetry In Motion (ATO Records)

For 'Poetry In Motion' the Washington based band took to the studio of the Dave Matthews Band in Charlottesville, Virginia. Front man Jacob Hemphill summarizes the album as follows: "'Poetry In Motion' is about us, the human race. We're beautiful. We're the caretakers of this earth. But something is wrong. Something in us is lost. (The album is about) how to get back to the beauty and away from ... well, this!". First single 'More' neatly fits that vision: "'More' is about consumption and envy. It's about the false belief that you need more stuff to be happy (and) about trying to strip all that away and finding happiness in the truth that less is more!". Key track on 'Poetry in Motion' is 'Fire In The Sky', a song that Jacob wrote after one of the other band members had just lost a family member: "The song is about how beautiful it is to be alive even though all of us at times question our purpose in being here and can be terrified by the fact we all must leave at one point."; also explaining the hourglass on the cover of the album. Also sure to put a lump in your throat is 'Life Support', in which Hemphill talks about the hypocrisy we gladly deploy when defending our western values, and that without unconditional love we're really only surviving on life support (the song ends more than appropriately with a "flatline", the sound that a hospital monitor makes in the hospital makes when a heartbeat or brain activity are no longer detected). Of a very different order is the more than solid 'To Whom It May Concern', with Bobby Lee on lead vocals in deejay-style. SOJA's well-known recipe - solid rock influences, the latin horns of Hellman Escorcia (sax) and Rafael Rodriguez (trumpet), and the voices of Jacob Hemphill and Bobby Lee -  has remained virtually unchanged. Even though the track list contains the odd mellow tune ('I Can't Stop Dreaming', 'Sing To Me'), 'Poetry In Motion' feels like a really cohesive album, and just for that alone the Americans deserve kudos!