Search - Junior Kelly :: Conscious Voice

Conscious Choice

jahsh_concurz | Newark, NJ & CT | 08/20/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yes the Bobo Dread, Junior Kelly, certainly does have a conscious voice. He is continually gaining more and more notice as the next big thing coming out of Rasta reggae. A perfect medium between his wild and crazy Bobo bredren Capleton and Sizzla and other modern roots and culture artists like Morgan Heritage and Luciano. He brings Dancehall with a Rootsy vibration. See my review of his earlier album Love So Nice for more of my opinion on him. All that being said, this album fails to produce the quality of material that Junior Kelly deserves. Penetentiary records released this album and although it is good, its production is lacking and dull compared to the brilliant Love So Nice produced by VP records. However Nuff tunes are good here. The album opens up with a strong hard hitting Push A Fire (with and uncredited Yami Bolo), Bun Down Rome is a good tune (don't take it too literally or personally, this is the Bobo overstanding of things and it is used as a metaphor for ridding the Vatican of its corruption, I am ethnically Italian myself), What A Worries, God Bless are some more strong tunes. Them & Those speaks of dem people who only need you when you are on the rise and abandon you otherwise. Come One Day and My Only Joy are some of my other favorites. The rest of the songs are also pretty good alot of them I knew beforehand as singles so it wasn't a suprise for me, there is Jah Live On (on Love So Nice) a redone version of Jah Nuh Dead which is good, but not all that different from the first version. Also included are some trademark Junior Kelly heartbreak and lamenting songs (I feel de bredren believe me). The only bad song here in my opinion is the Love So Nice remix, it is terrible... I tried to like it, but I dunno why they massacred the song. So... heres what I say, Junior Kelly is a great artist, and his albums are few and hard to come across... this album is worth getting, it is still good but don't expect the power of production that was on VP's Love So Nice. Go ahead and enjoy and keep your eyes open for VP's next release of Junior Kelly. JAH, Rastafari!"

Very, very good album. . .

Achis | Kingston, JA/Philipsburg, SxM | 06/11/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"(4.5stars)
Conscious Voice is easily Junior Kelly's best work since Juvenile and its dubbed out counterpart. Simply put, there are no bad tracks here and the underrated singjay rules it throughout the album. My simple critique of Junior Kelly has always been his lyrical content, he has (usually) a problem with consistency, meaning that you can clearly see that he has the ability to do much better than he does, but on Conscious Voice, he leaves very little room for improvement. My favorite track here is without a doubt the beautiful God Bless, which reminds me a little of Kalonji's awesome "The World" from Bobo Ashanti. Speaking of Sizzla that is exactly the level that Junior Kelly attains with this one. Also check Push a Fire, Dem Shoulda Know, What a Worries and its remix, and Them and Those. Also interesting here is the hip-hop treatment given to Kelly's biggest hit to date Love So Nice, I'm not saying its great, but its very interesting to hear. And by the way feel Jah Live On and Come One Day, but as I've said there are no weak songs here, just hits and Kelly runs it amazingly well."