This highly polished album was a big change from what I am normally used to and I found it very refreshing. The album as a whole had a very polished sound and had a very even flow.
Starting out with their well received track ‘Hesitate No’ the album builds up to a distinctive sound, with the heavy steel guitar sound that opens ‘Hesitate No’ being woven throughout the album, and holds it together as a very cohesive whole.
The title track ‘Medicine Man’ is the track on the album when they start to bring in their reggae influences and starts off really strong, however towards the end the tempo of the music changes.
That’s what probably stands out the most for this album, the changes in the tempo which can be very dramatic. A couple of the tracks I needed to re-check that I was listening to the same song as the song would start out with a strong, strident beat then ease to a very slow one. Personally I felt like the change from fast to slow beats makes me feel like the track has run out of energy too soon.
That said the album as a whole does flow in a very nice pattern, which does change my overall perception of the album. While the individual song patterns do slightly put me off, from start to finish the album plays very well and the tempo changes gives the album a vibrant growth. I wouldn’t suggest playing this on shuffle play, but let the album flow as it is.
Overall I have to admit that this album wasn’t my cup of tea, but I would still recommend it to people who enjoy reggae/dub music. The vocals were excellent and the music was really high quality. Personally I feel this was more mainstream than what I would have expected but it’s still a really solid work of music.
