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What year is it? The upbeat rhythms croaking from the speakers of the laptop seem to come straight from the sixties / seventies, pure rocksteady and roots reggae of the then came blaring from the sound system walking around the streets of Kingston. E '"Rebirth", the rebirth of name and in fact Jimmy Cliff, old lion (but not too much: 64 years) of Jamaica survived Peter Tosh and Bob Marley, the Supreme him ousted in the role of a missionary and a symbol of a nation, but that paved the way looking for (and finding) before him luck in London thanks to Chris Blackwell's Island.
Here the legendary Jimmy, who still celebrates Bruce Springsteen in concert, from time to time, with an incendiary rendition of "Trapped", closes a symbolic circle. Why was another of his many patrons within rock, never too late Joe Strummer, to present him to the producer of this album and a previous EP, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, and now it's his turn, when to start repay both the Clash and their followers Californians have borrowed from Jamaica through two covers that are among the best from the album. Kingston-London-Berkeley and return: in the mouth of Cliff, uvula educated and melodious, the words of "Guns of Brixton" (one of the classic "London Calling") are less threatening than when sputtering with rage but the young Paul Simonon no less direct and evocative: between the seventies and today little has changed, and one immediately thinks of the riots in the summer of 2011 have once again ignited the suburbs of London and the whole UK. And "Ruby Soho" Rancid flamboyant punk anthem that singing in a blaze of electric guitars - was the 1995 "Out come the wolves" - is transformed into the arms of the Patriarch in a chant lazy gait. Irresistible, like many of the songs on this record that Armstrong has lent a hand in composing and recording stage, playing his guitar.
After a sequence of albums enervated, faded or spoiled by a desire to play "modern" at all costs, Cliff had a fixed idea in his head. Resume the thread from where it stopped in 1969 with his first self-titled album (is the same, at least in the logo, the label: the legendary Trojan). Return to a genre of music that drifts in the dancehall and ragga has run wrapped on the themes of machismo, homophobia and easy money the way, the message, the utopian ideal of those who wanted and still want to change the world. It 's so from the very first bars of "World upside down", organ chords and rhythms supple to tell a world which still reigns social injustice, religious hypocrisy and political tyranny: the unexpected physical and spiritual energy of Ivanhoe Martin, Cliff gave the outlaw philosopher whose voice and face of the legendary "The Harder They Come" in 1972. The music is the same as then, a lively mix and tantalizing reggae, pop, rock & roll and soul with a touch of James Brown in the veins ("Outsider", an irresistible r & b fiatistico dancefloor would have depopulated between mod and skinhead English) and Sam Cooke a lot, especially when Jimmy caresses the soft tones of his voice and winds up with the falsetto ("Cry No More", an invocation of encouragement to families plunged over the edge of deprivation). With the help of fundamental Armstrong, vocalist dosa good rhythms and climates: all 'uptempo pressing of the single "One more," the piece more marleyano and "anthemico" the deck in two versions, is mirrored by the mood soft and relaxed "Children's bread", a stance in favor of the movement "Occupy" to combat rock of "Bang" guitar twang and atmosphere of the "Sandinista!" the little history lesson of "Reggae music", in which personal stories (the first book deal with Leslie Kong in 1962) are mixed with large group events (Jamaican independence, the struggles for civil rights, the protest against the war in Vietnam, with Desmond Dekker and Prince Buster to act as a column sound). A nice review, as in essence it is all "Rebirth" in sunlight "Blessed Love" in the breeze "Ship is sailing", and fierce carnival mood of "Rebel Rebel". Cliff, fresh as a daisy, still has dreams and ambitions, the Jamaicans in Kingston and Notting Hill have found a great spokesman.
