Mr. Something Something - Shine Your Face (2009)

From way out in left field comes this superb release, their fourth, spreading wide the gates of listener-friendly world music, but based out of Toronto, Canada. From a first listen, it grabs you with its busy rhythmic pulse and stop-on-a-dime horn section, blending African and Western musics.

This infectious six-piece band grafts each sensational track together with smart pop hooks held in place by a gifted and extraordinary singer in Johan Hultqvist—adding accessibility to what is otherwise a high-torque melding of funk, jazz and Afrobeat (each of which is far too limiting in defining this crackerjack band).

Special attention is also due the divine marriage of John MacLean’s tenor sax (and guest horn section) to Larry Graves’s precision drumming. The resulting wall of sound is spiced up nicely (but never enough) by Paul MacDougall’s guitar lines and the fleet-fingered bass work of Liam Smith.

The opening track serves immediate notice that this is something fresh and impossibly involving, its complex rhythms giving way to a phenomenally stimulating listen. Each of its eight tracks is its own highlight, an added plus found in the band’s smart lyrics—at once socially conscious and politically motivating. Why Why Why and What Are You Waiting For? alone make the perfect soundtrack to the summer that never came to Eastern Canada.