Oh dear. The Black Seeds have done it again. Despite taking an adventurous turn and experimenting with some cool synth sounds and adding a trumpet player, they’ve made yet another really boring album. The best thing that could be said about Solid Ground is that they certainly tried hard.
Probably the worst thing about the thirteen long, painfully upbeat tracks is the lyrics. Reminiscent of a government health campaign, they tell us things we already know in ways we’ve heard many, many times before, such as “We don’t need your negative vibrations, no, no, no” (‘Come To Me’). As it happens, I agree – negative vibrations totally suck. But could he not have found a more elegant way of saying it? As someone who actually uses the word ‘vibe’ sincerely in everyday conversation, I think I’m licensed to pass judgment on this. The sentiment may be genuine, but it sounds like bullshit.
Musically, it’s mostly the same bog-standard classic reggae seen in earlier albums. It’s obvious that the individual musicians all know their stuff, but the whole thing sounds too studied, too on-the-beat, too obvious to be truly inspiring. It’s another case of music that should be good, considering the band members’ combined talent, but lacks the sense of fun that often results from messiness and amateurism.
It’s like an academic essay – and not a very well-researched one either. If the ‘Seeds were truly trying to replicate classic Jamaican reggae, they surely would have noticed that it is essentially political music. They make vague Obama-esque comments about ‘change’ and ‘making a move’, but lack the political balls to get any deeper or more specific. This effectively takes the wind out of the genre’s sails, leaving us with something rather flaccid and static.
Maybe The Black Seeds are simply too rich and too white to make this music work. Maybe they don’t smoke enough pot. Or perhaps they’re too concerned with getting every note perfect to let any actual raw expression in to their shiny, upbeat, corporate hippy sonic universe.