Ras Shiloh - Coming home

One of the biggest losses in contemporary Reggae has to be the very untimely death of "Garnett Silk" in the mid 90ies, he could have become one of the brightest shining stars of the genre. Luckily we still got "Ras Shiloh" who has a voice that is very similar to the dead "superstar-to-be". It's hard to tell from listening to him but he's American, born and raised in NY. This album from 07' is one of his most recent and best.

It starts geniously whit "We need more love" who calls out for "more love" and is very critical to how we treat each other nowadays and how he's "tired of walking the streets being afraid of my own shadow", the music is very smooth and relaxed without straying too much from a distinct backbeat. This is the kinda riddim that works just as well on an British "lovers rock" song as an more conscious one, an excellent start to this album and one of my favourite "Ras Shiloh" songs of all-time.

Next up, on "Voice of the people"  he criticize the governments of the world and how they oppresses "the voice of the people"  and how that will cause 'nuff negativity such as riots and social unrest. It features Rasta/12 Tribes super group "Morgan Heritage" and is a lil bit more uptempo than the first song, it's a good song whit an important message but fails to reach the heights of the first song. A couple songs later we get "The new rising day" whit Ragga artist "Bascom X", it's similar to the first song in content but ads a bit of dancehall vibes to the preachings of love and understanding, a great uptempo roots song whit a contemporary feel.

For those who want's lovers songs he continues whit "Need your love" and "Are you lonely" who are just as smooth and relaxed as these sorta songs should be, i think it's a nice touch when more conscious, rootsy artists ad a few love songs to their albums, it softens them up a bit, ads variety and iv'e personaly always enjoyed sappy love songs done to a backbeat.

 Don't think that "Ras Shiloh" strays from the more straight religious subjects on here, "Volume of the books" deals whit the words of the bible and on "Come down Jah Jah" he pleads for god to return to earth, all over some catchy uptempo riddims. Over all i would say that this is a very good and well rounded album where Ras infuses some of his own personality into his music and shows that he's more than just a "Garnett Silk" copycat artist. I may not have mentioned every song on here but this album certainly is one without any fillers, if you're into smooth, contemporary roots reggae whit a touch of "lovers rock" you would do very good in buying this.

 Coming Home   Only King Selassie   Babylon You Doom   From Rasta to You   Melchizedek Vibes Vol. One