Soom T - Good (X-Ray Production)

In nauwe samenwerking met Xavier Wax (die onder andere instond voor de mix van het album) en producers als Kiko, Gaudi en Alex Dupuis (Flash Hit Records), en geruggensteund door begeleidingsband The Stone Monks (Thierry 'Titi' Lechauve - bas, Thomas Join-Lambert - drums, Gregory Emonet - gitaar, Cyril 'Molood' Colling - toetsen, en tenslotte Xavier Walks achter de knoppen), voor de gelegenheid aangevuld met Guillaume 'Stepper' Briard - saxofoon/trombone en Didier Bolay - trompet/trombone, leverde dat 16 tracks op, gaande van schijnbaar vrolijke uptempo ska in 'World We Live In', een nummer dat toch een serieuze ondertoon blijkt te hebben ("Looking down at Nike feet, made by kids with nowt to eat, but crumbs dropped from the master's table. Welcome to the life you lead. This is the world you live in. This is the life You've been given. This is all you've come to know. Can you love or did you lose ya soul? Noble sentiments and graces, replaced by ho's, guns, drugs and chasers. Sisters dead inside and dumb, treated like they're just gor fun…"), over de revolutionaire dancehall meets banghra van 'Don't Stand For This' ("My Rasta put up your fist, show that the movement of Rasta exist. Stand up for the truth and resist, don't stand for this!"), waarmee de Schots-Indische teruggrijpt naar haar Indische wortels, en de jazzy ode aan de vriendschap 'One Real Friend' ("One real friend is better than a billion dollars reaching the end…"), tot de dubby roots van 'Our Day' of 'Steps', waarvoor Gaudi een sample uit Junior Murvin's iconische 'Police And Thieves' recycleerde.

Inhoudelijk maakt Soom zich in tracks als 'Yes My People', 'Our Day' ("I look at the world that I am living in, so many good people feel like giving in. In a world corrupt and so full of sin, it's so hard I just don't know where to begin…") of 'Get The Fruit' ("Who is to blame for the violence and guns, rape, greed, peeps looking out for number one, drugs and alcohol destroying the minds of the young? Personally, I blame the television, I blame the evil, the powers of control, the one brotherhood that rules them all…") duidelijk zorgen over de 'Big Bad World' om ons heen: "Sometimes I feel I'm in a cage like a bird, trapped in a hole in a big bad world. Sometimes I shout to be helped out the dirt, but it feels like nobody heard. They have trapped people's minds, so that they're in prison, jailed by a jailer grinning. Promoting the silence, the violence and sinning, instead of the truth given to us in the beginning. They sell cheap thrills on the dirty television, dirty programming, dirty lies and dirty mission, dirty politics, tricks and dirty politicians, sending you to war while in their mansions chilling…".

Voor antwoorden blijft Soom zoals voorheen devoot naar de Allerhoogste kijken: "And the Lord, he came down one day, and he gave us life, and he told us he's the only way…" of "Yes, the Lord Almighty is the one who sends love and he'll tell us this and we need to all trust." uit 'Yes My People', "As I look on in search of what it's all about, talking to God on a big white cloud, people that I grew to love were heading for destruction, so I needed for them to know something, the tale of a Son, a cross to bear…" uit 'I Wanna Live', "To live is Christ, they say to die is gain. Freed calling on Jesus, saviour in a name…" uit het uitstekende 'Born Free', duidelijk één van de hoogtepunten uit de tracklist, en tenslotte het lekker rootsy klinkende 'Amazing Graces', dat weinig uitleg behoeft.

In 'Your Time' verwerkt ze dan weer haar gevoelens rond een relatiebreuk ("I woke up to the silence in the morning. I knew that you had left me. I heard you leave in the middle of the night…"), en besluiten doet Soom met het sound system anthem 'One More Tune': "One more tune, one more tune! People going crazy like a city full of loons. Tell them one more tune, time to mash it up soon. Rewind my selecta, don't be distant like the moon…". Voor de hoesafbeelding van het album deed Soom tenslotte beroep op de Franse straatartieste Nikita.