Superheavy - Superheavy (Self Titled Album)
Released 19th September, 2011 - Universal Music
Meet SuperHeavy; the collaboration of five artists from vastly different musical backgrounds. The result of their fusion as one musical act? Confusion.
There are some massive names in this line up: The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, British soul songstress Joss Stone, Damian Marley following in his legendary father's footsteps, Bollywood composer A R Rahman and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics fame. But proceed with caution.
The first listen might feel like an assault on the ears. So much is thrown at the listener - rock, Urdu, reggae, blues, Sanskrit, and Mick Jagger rapping. The album as a whole lacks cohesion, moving from totally over-loaded concoctions, to altogether different rock numbers stemming from the Jagger repertoire. Any gelling of genres that is achieved is abruptly severed by a change in direction. It's erratic, making it hard to maintain that vital energy and hold the listener. At one point Joss Stone screams "What the fuck is going on?" Her words, not mine.
And at times it's just all a bit weird, what with the rapping and Jagger having a go at singing in Urdu. As a Gym Class Heroes release is sitting high in the charts, blasting the prowess of Jagger's legendary moves, the man himself is dropping the mantle. This is Mick experimenting outside the Stones. Now 68, his vocals aren't always the best, his harmonies at times jarring; if his voice still had that rambunctious fluidity of the Stones' glory years it would sound a lot better. It's hard not to think of SuperHeavy as a Mick Jagger album, given his impossible to ignore presence, but once you stop seeing it as that and get over the initial shock of what's thrown at you, things do start looking up.
A handful of tracks save the album, one being the first single Miracle Worker. The artists manage to contribute in harmony on this one, achieving a hint of what the album could have been as a whole, if it wasn't over-adorned and disjointed. Mr Marley's rolling lyrics bubble and wash over the opening bars and Joss Stone gets her sultry groove on. Enter Mick, bouncing words off the microphone in his signature spittle-flecked delivery; "There's nothing wrong with you I can't fix, I come a runnin' with my little bag of tricks."
The group's different styles also merge seamlessly on Beautiful People and final tracks I Don't Mind and World Keeps Turning. A hint of Stewart's Eurythmics influence comes through on I Don't Mind as Marley proclaims "Sweet dreams are made of me, and who are you to disagree?" These are some decent songs, but they aren't doused in Eastern flavour like the first half of the album - while initially this was too much, by the end of the album it feels like there's not enough, given the direction SuperHeavy first sets off in.
This is not a super group in the same vein as celebrated acts Them Crooked Vultures, The Dirty Mac or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. While SuperHeavy fits the ‘super' component, given the considerable weight of the artists' individual talents, unlike the three groups just mentioned these artists are not unified by a single genre. Their diversity may be too much to make this project work, and certainly this album did not live up to what it could have been.
Tagged as : Superheavy | album review |
