From coke last album, to “t’weed” this album (as Tosh calls it). But, actually, it’s only the title track that is remotely druggy and is even quite wry and witty (you have to love a track that has the audacity to make a rhyme of “tubercolosis” and “pneumonosilicosis”).
Tosh is one third of the original Wailers, along with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, and so as expected we get a reggae album. Of the three reggae artists so far, Tosh has the cleanest recording – sometimes the combination of muddy mixing and strong Jamaican patois makes it difficult for me to discern lyrics, but no such problems with Tosh.
Apart from the opening track, Tosh largely stays away from politics in his songs, and only the track Igziabeher (Let Jah Be Praised) has anything to do with Rastafarianism; it sounds like a psalm in the lyrics about Jah striking down those who oppress the singer. Maybe it is even a psalm set to music; it’s been about a decade since I did my An Atheist Explores The Bible series on this blog, and the psalms did largely blur together, so without extra research I can’t be sure. And frankly, I can't be bothered.
Otherwise, Tosh seems to be all for enjoying life, whether it’s enjoying a joint without police harassment or the thinly veiled reference to sex in Ketchy Shuby (“Ketchy, ketchy – shuby, shuby tonight, All night long we ah go”), describing a new “game” to play. Other tracks are more substantial, about love and loss.
There’s a little bit more to the music as well. Some tracks have a bit of a funky guitar break (there are many guitarists listed, hard to say who is playing), the track Till You Well Runs Dry is a bit of a mash-up of country rock for the verses and reggae for the chorus.
I liked this one, Tosh sounds like he’s having a lot of fun making it, and it’s hard not to pick up on that infectious mood.
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