Max Romeo - Words From The Brave (Baco Records)

For this project, Max joined forces with a French all-star band he'd previously toured Europe with. Supplemented with a number of extra musicians, they formed the ten-piece Roots Heritage. Romeo couldn't open more up-to-date than with 'The World Is On Fire', a song that, given the numerous forest fires raging from Alaska over Siberia to the Amazon, we can take quite literally at the moment. Similar in tone is 'Eve Of Destruction', a reggae version of Barry McGuire's 1965 world hit, in 'Too Many' Max denounces the greed and corruption flourishing in our neo-capitalist society, and title track 'Words From The Brave' is an indictment of the treatment of black people over the centuries, each time abused in different ways by their "masters". Apart from music, Romeo's other passion has always been to work the land, so no one is better placed to sing about the plight of the farmer, resulting in the excellent 'The Farmer's Story'. For the up-tempo closing track 'Thank God', Romeo goes ska and expresses his gratitude for the path of life he has been able to follow. 'Say Yes' is a single love tune amongst what are almost all conscious tracks, but if there's one tune on 'Words From The Brave' that's in stark contrast to the aforementioned songs, it's 'Penguin', a lightweight duet with son Azizzi Romeo seemingly designed to start a new dance craze. We gladly forgive Max for this lapse in judgement, as apart from this minor flaw, 'Words From The Brave' is a most excellent album indeed!