“Black & White”
The Green
(Easy Star ES-1071)
Love and relationships are the primary subject matter for this newly released collection of 15 new songs by The Green. Seven were written entirely by the group, the others by the group plus one or more co-writers; all are original to this release.
Acoustic guitar is the most prominent instrumental texture in the musical arrangements, with drummer Jordan Espinoza, multi-instrumentalist Brad Watanabe (who plays bass as well as keyboards, ukulele and acoustic guitar), and guest percussionist Lopaka Colon providing a solid foundation as the rhythm section.
Caleb Keolanui, JP Kennedy, Zion Thompson and Ikaika Antone share lead vocal duties, and Watanabe adds his voice to the backing vocals. There’s plenty of vocal depth.
The multi-part a capella intro to a song titled “Good Vibration” is an impressive demonstration of what The Green can do vocally. “Chocolates & Roses” stands out in all respects — lyrics, instrumentation, vocals — as one of their most romantic love songs.
“All I Need” catches the ear with a bass line reminiscent of Ben E. King’s Top Five hit “Stand By Me,” and a lyric line straight from the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell hit, “You’re All I Need To Get By.” Similarities aside, the song is a beautiful testament of dev0tion offered to one’s true love
Other songs hit on traditional reggae subjects. The guys imagine life as rural Rastafari with “What Will Be Will Be” and idealize marijuana use with “Going Up.” They also get radical and drop a few “F-words” on “Never,” the song that is their one somewhat political contribution to the album.
Count The Green as early front-runners for the Na Hoku Hano Hano Awards’ Best Reggae Album in 2020.
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“Island Style ‘Ukulele 3”
Various artists
(Neos Productions V142)
The commercial success of digital download-only releases is forcing even “prehistoric skool” die-hards to accept them as the new normal, but hard-copy CDs can justify their cost and bulk by giving buyers bonus booklets full of background information, or by giving artists something to sell and sign at their gigs.
This compilation leans to the “sell and sign” end of the spectrum. The liner notes provide only the basic performer and composer credits, although identifying the brand of ukulele each artist plays is a nice touch.
Herb Ohta Jr., and Bryan Tolentino need no introduction as ukulele artists. Here’s information about the others: Jay Molina is backed by his father, 1970s era Waikiki bassist Jay Molina. Florent and Carole Atem are a brother-and-sister duo from Tahiti. Brittni Paiva was the Taimane Gardner of the early-2000s — and she can still rock it.
All of these artists deserve to be known and heard.
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