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 Caught in the Carousel "There will be music despite everything"
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Inner Circle
State of Da World
Shenachie
Like its title suggests, Inner Circle's State Of Da World has global matters on its mind. Cultural unity, religion, poverty and war are the thematic concerns of this fifteen-track collection, and if the merits of this album were based on message alone, it would be nothing short of a triumph. However, good intentions aside, the songs have to keep up and sadly, they strain against State Of Da World's ambition. It's not that it comes up empty every time—"Smoke Gets In My Eyes" has percussive power and sweet harmonies and the title track is imbued with rhythmic smarts. The trouble here is that the songs lack the fire of this legendary reggae band's earlier work (like the classic "Tenement Yard") and instead opt for tame beats, saturated synth fills and overproduced instrumentation that unfortunately makes the songs sink under their artifice. Evidence of this can be found on the surprisingly benign and preachy "Dis Life" or the well-meaning, but poorly executed "Gun Ting" which weakly suggests a fixation on violence has left us with "no time for loving." This is a pity, because between inspired cameos (the dub punks Slightly Stoopid guest on the punful "Mary Collie Weed" and Steele Pulse show up to spice up the buoyant "Religitoni") and occasional blasts of former fire ("Blood A Run"), this is an album that should have been much, much better.
—Alex Green
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