Ginjah - Urge To Love (2014)

From the Long Beach CA based producer that gave us the sweet "Game Theory Riddim", Jungle Josh, comes the long awaited follow up to Ginjah's solid debut album "Never Lost My Way". The fine Jamaican vocalist, who was once part of Beres Hammond's Harmony House camp, recently got a career boost when he scored his second major hit with "Sweet Killer" on Silly Walks Discotheque's "Honey Pot" riddim, which is also known from Chronixx's big hit, "Smile Jamaica".

Ginjah's brand new "Urge To Love" album is, as the title indicates, all about love and also sees the soulful singer expressing some of his personal feelings towards the ladies. "Baby Girl (What Love Means)" is a strong opener, a standout tune delivered across a great 'one drop' riddim with appealing saxophone parts. It's followed by "On My Mind", which unfortunately doesn't match it predecessor. Vocally and lyrically there's nothing wrong with this tune, but we really don't know why someone who produces the music of a reggae artist feels the need to combine 'elements of everything from the crusty guitars of Portishead, and the 80's synths of Duran Duran, to the rapid-fire hi-hats of a modern-day R&B track'. It simply doesn't make sense and it also doesn't work!! And it even gets more worse when "Sure Love" comes in. This track, which lands somewhere between the Clash, Outkast and Gnarles Barkley, has nothing to do with reggae music!!!

"Sure Love" almost turned us off, but luckily we continued listening and were pleased that the rest of this album lacked the aforementioned kinda musical efforts. It's true reggae music, or at least stays very close to it, thus not only doing justice to Ginjah's cultural background but also giving him the chance to show what he can do best, namely delivering vocally and lyrically solid to great reggae tunes. "Goody Two-Shoe", coming across a real nice riddim, is a song that makes your head nod, while the aching "Anything In Life" makes a good impression throughout. This can also be said about the heartfelt "Hurtin'", which has a different vibe but is a wonderful lovers piece too. The title track, "Urge To Love", is a standout effort, and also the album closer "4 AM" on the "Game Theory" riddim falls into this category.

Even though a few tracks musically are out of place, this is a worthwhile collection of tunes from a singer who deserves a giant international breakthrough.