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Review by John Berger
jberger@staradvertiser.com
"The Change I’m Seeking" Mike Love (Lovenotwar)
It would be understandable if some people assume this is a locally recorded solo project by the lead singer of the Beach Boys.
No, this Mike Love is a Hawaii singer-songwriter whose debut album blends Jamaican rhythms and Rastafarian religious perspectives with elements of acoustic pop music in imaginative ways. Love’s music and arrangements, and the production values that Love and his co-producer, Shawn Livingston Mosley, maintain throughout the project, make it a memorable calling card.
For instance, where some local producers would use computer tracks to simulate backing musicians, Love and Mosley employed a string quartet and several horn players. The additional backing musicians — DeShannon Higa and Duane Padilla, to name two — give the arrangements organic warmth and lushness.
The "change" Love mentions in the title is political and social.
On "No More War," Love mourns the social processes that set children on track to grow up, volunteer for military service and go kill "enemies for democracy in a foreign land." He cautions that while military personnel die in distant lands, there are people here in the United States who "sit in their mansion reaping all the benefits."
Love shares an element of basic Rastafarian doctrine with a song with the ironic title "Barbershop." Serious Rastafarians do not cut their hair; they let their "roots" grow, as Love sings, "as a symbol of the Love for Jah that I n I have found." (A photo shows Love’s "roots" reaching past his waist).
Love neatly steps from reggae to classic R&B with an improbably titled love song, "Butterflies and Beefstew." The lyrics show his romantic side; the arrangement shows off his vocal range. A second love song, "Distant Travelers," also takes the listener outside the dominant reggae format.
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