Snoop Lion's Reincarnated

  Snoop Dogg made a pilgrimage to Jamaica and came back as Snoop Lion.  Now Snoop Lion has released the album Reincarnated.  This is Snoop's attempt at Reggae, which seems appropriate given his penchant for smoking weed.

     There is some part of me that would really love to hate this album.  Every track features at least one guest artist.  Miley Cyrus and Drake made appearances, and I've never liked either of them.  Snoop also had (according to an article by Drew Magary on GQ's website) top 40 aspirations with this collection of songs.  For these reasons, part of me--probably the part of me stuck in high school screaming about how much Geffen records suck--would love to hate this album.  But I don't hate this album, because none of the previously listed reasons have anything to do with the quality of the music.

Lyrically it's very positive, particularly on tracks like "So Long," and "The Good Good."  "Fruit Juice" is literally about juice, but it's also about the benefits of a natural diet.

This is a reggae album, and there are times where it barely feels like one.  Snoop Lion's album does not push the limits of the genre, it just feels the reggae influence is mixed into the background.  This is particularly true on the opening track, "Rebel Way."  There is a lot of emphasis on the vocals, which distracts from the rest of the instrumentation.

I'm not really a fan of Major Lazer's production on this album.  Most of the time I found his background noises distracting.  On "Here Comes the King" there was more empty space, and that only helped the track.  Probably my favorite song on the album would be "The Good Good," with "Tired of Running" and "Here Comes the King" as close followers.  The other songs feel a little thick and they don't leave much empty space for the music to build around.

When I sat down to write this review I had listened to a bit of Bob Marley and a little Desmond Decker.  I also read the up on reggae, starting with the Wikipedia page.  To me, this album feels--at least part of the time--like someone looked at the Wikipedia entry for reggae, put in a few elements of the genre, and then mixed them into the background of the music.

My biggest criticism of this album would be its lack of staying power.  After five times listening to this album, I can only really remember a few songs ("Smoke the Weed" and "Fruit Juice"), and I could live my life without ever hearing another song off this album again.   Honestly Reincarnated is not very good, but it's not like it's offensively bad--what I really mean is this album elicits no emotional response from me.  If I had to assign a number I'd say 4/10.

My question to you is, if you've listened to this album, did you love it, hate it, or feel like I did?  What would help me better understand what this album was going for?  What contemporary reggae artists can you recommend?  And finally, what should I review next?



Sources:

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/music/201301/snoop-lion-snoop-dogg-profile-gq-january-2013?currentPage=2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggae  (Yes I really did read this)