Album reviews: Shaggy – Wah Gwaan?! and Collard – Unholy
Compared to Shaggy’s surprisingly fruitful collaboration with Sting last year, Wah Gwaan?! is a dismal farrago of a record. Meanwhile, London-based artist Collard impresses with his debut album, Unholy.
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Your support makes all the difference.Shaggy – Wah Gwaan?!
★★☆☆☆
Shaggy’s “Boombastic” days are a distant memory on Wah Gwaan?!. While the artist may frequently recount raucous encounters with women on the new record, the 14 tracks mark a dramatic change for the former Mr Lover Lover. Gone are the laidback jams of “It Wasn’t Me” and “Angel”, replaced with overproduced and derivative pop songs that are desperate to squeeze onto one of your Spotify account’s party playlists.
Take the album’s opening track, “Caribbean Way”, which is built on a techno beat that stabs your eardrums. It’s an abrasive beginning that’s completely at odds with the second track “When She Loves Me” – a relaxed ode to a female partner that’s one of the few occasions Shaggy has fun on the record.
Track three, “You”, takes another turn, with Shaggy attempting to create a dancefloor anthem: all steelpan drums, heavily manipulated vocal samples and a chorus as basic as they come (Alexander Stewart, of YouTube fame, sings “All I see is you, you, you, you, you, you”). As Shaggy repeats this refrain, he sounds as bored as the listener.
Later, he lifts from Drake’s “One Dance” on “Supernatural”, takes inspiration from Revival-era Eminem on “Wrong Room” and attempts Migos ad libs on “Ketch Mi Up”.
The best songs are those where Shaggy goes back to basics. He sings about being “so focused on earning a living I forgot how to live”, on the gospel-enthused “Live”. Meanwhile, “Makeup Sex” sees Shaggy loosen up, with lyrics concerning “angry emojis” and an enraged lover.
Compared to Shaggy’s surprisingly fruitful (and Grammy award-winning) collaboration with Sting, Wah Gwaan?! is a dismal farrago of a record. The title may hark back to Shaggy’s Jamaican roots, but the album was engineered by a lab of serial pop producers looking to make a quick buck. Jack Shepherd
Collard – Unholy
★★★★☆
You don’t expect to stumble across an artist like Collard in 2019. Where his contemporaries AJ Tracey, J Hus and Stormzy tend to favour icy cold beats and stark instrumentation, this London-based rapper and singer smoulders with his own maximalist approach.
On his debut album, Unholy, the 24-year-old mixes sultry jams that recall the electronic funk of MGMT with nods to the greats: Prince, James Brown, Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye. Throughout, Collard exhibits his extraordinary voice, which swoops to a devilishly low murmur or soars to an ecstatic falsetto.
Guest rapper Kojey Radical takes on the role of preacher for “Ground Control”. There’s a sax on “Sacrament” that’s loaded with longing, while the grunge-gospel stylings of “Merciless” offer ominous guitars and Collard’s reverent croons. On the lustful “Hell Song” he sings “less is more… but more is good”. You’re inclined to agree with him. Roisin O’Connor
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