Sometimes I wonder how the landscapes other genres of music might look if they functioned more like the ways of Soca. The ridiculously hype Caribbean art form is one which very much has a quite unique type of ‘scheduling’ and at the same time, during its season, has more than a few interesting details and circumstances. The first of which is definitely the very fact that Soca, unlike probably every other form of music that I know is ‘seasonal’ music. You might not actually know this and it may not seem like so (because there are so many islands and those many islands stagger their seasons, so if you look at it as a whole, it may appear to be one running continuous season but it isn’t) but the vast majority of NEW Soca music for a given island is produced and then played and promoted at certain times and that, of course, depends on a particular island’s Carnival season. The next and most important feature (in terms of this review) of Soca music’s uniqueness is the inherent COMPETITIVE structure on which it is built. Almost EVERYTHING about the music, including the music itself, the presentation of the music (the performance), the playing of the music, the ‘usefulness’ of the music, it’s popularity, the response the masses have to it and pretty much everything else you can think of (including the costumes worn while marching to it) about the music has a competition and a reward system and it is that way almost anywhere you’ll find Soca music heavily loved and regarded, no matter that place’s advancement or lack thereof. However, two of the most prized competitions in Soca and the two which focus mostly on the music itself is the Road March and Soca Monarch competitions. Road March is pretty ‘complicatedly simple’ (if such a thing exists), wherein what it BASICALLY means is that a particular song is the most popular of a particular season. The complicated part comes in, in the fact that the determination of how popular a given Road March contender is lies in how many times certain judges hear the tune played at certain checkpoints during Carnival. Thus the competition, kind of sort of, boils down to a matter of numbers. The same is (I GUESS) true for Soca Monarch, which is, for me, the highlight of any Carnival season which holds such an event as it takes (some of the) most popular artists and their big tunes from a given season and puts them in DIRECT competition against each other to see who can outperform the others and take the crown. Both competitions are SERIOUS business, as winners (and almost-winners in some cases) take not only a pretty nice cash prize and a car or a house or jewelry or some other things like such. But they also get other, further reaching, perks sometimes.
Perks can be exposure, or, in some cases, a full blown album. Of course that’s not always the case, as, to the best of my knowledge neither Skinny Fabulous, nor Ricky T, now both current and repeat winners of Soca Monarch competitions in their respective locales (St. Vincy and St. Lucia, respectively) and neither of them have albums although they may lack a wider appeal outside of the Soca market (although both, Skinny in particular, would seemingly do well on Dancehall sets also). The CRIME here, however, is of course, the fact that the local FACE of Soca music, Faye-Ann Lyons, has yet to reach with a debut solo set (to my knowledge), as the results could be massive, however, there are definitely those taking strides in the right direction. Last year there was Grenadian star and former Road March winner Berbice, whose SOLID album Demon gained a very nice distribution all over the planet. The year before that was former St. Vincy Monarch and Road March winner, Bomani, taking similar steps with his own album, Deep. You’ve also seen CONSISTENT albums from accomplished artists such as Claudette Peters and Taxik and Tizzy and El-A-Kru, both from out of Antigua, which receive a great deal of attention worldwide as they become more and more available and others still (like Krosfyah) who have done the same (and Scrappy from Montserrat). Now, joining that elite level of artist, in more ways than one is the recently crowned 2009 Guyana Soca Monarch, Shelly G who brings her album, Work It and exposes it worldwide for the masses to take a look at what’s been going on in Guyana’s Soca ranks. Often overlooked by its closest neighbours, the landlocked country has been heating up on so many musical levels over the past few years with new and newer artists emerging almost EVERY DAY! In Reggae, Guyana has recently distinguished itself with artists like Natural Black and First Born, of course, but also others such as Ras Mac Bean, Arkaingelle, the up and coming Timeka Marshall (big artist) and the New York based (Sean Paul lookalike) Dutty Flex. In Soca, the first name that comes to mind is the INSANELY talented young singer Adrian Dutchin who makes some downright ADDICTIVE tunes when at his best and I also believe he’s sung EXTENSIVELY with the aforementioned Bajan super group, Krosfyah as well. There are also others like Malo and a whole heap of female artists, most notably Vanilla and woman of the moment, Shelly G. Shelly G is definitely what I might call a work in progress (aren’t we all) musically as she definitely has a solid base and one which has already earned her a Monarch crown but I don’t know that she’s even scratched the surface of her ultimate talent level. A great way to see how far she’s come as of yet, however, is to pick up her new album, Work It, from Dynamix Music (which I believe is the label ran by her management), one of the more INTERESTING Soca album releases of 2009 so far (which is saying something). The album isn’t her first as she has previously released a piece by the name of Shelly G Online, however, that album (which was regional I believe and it may not have been her first album actually) won’t end up doing half the business of Work It. The two will share some her bigger (and, of course, older) hits in common but for everyone who ended up missing the first piece, DEFINITELY no finer introduction exists to the very interesting Guyanese Queen of Soca, Shelly G.
The first thing you might notice on the cover (or the first thing that I noticed) was the absence of a ‘parental advisory’ sticker/graphic on the cover of Work It. Shelly G is quite known for her ‘risqué’ activity (musically speaking, of course) which definitely does come through on Work It. She makes a rather Pop/R&B friendly brand of Soca, for the most part and although there are very few parts of the album (if any at all) where she completely loses her mind (which I love) this piece definitely grew on me quite a bit in one or two spins through. Up first on Shelly G’s new album Work It is the downright ADDICTIVE title track which is also the tune which won Shelly the Soca Monarch crown. Work It plays on the WELL TIRED daggering sensation that grew old with me about a year ago but I have to admit I like this song! Its easily one of the (if not THE) best tune you’ll find on the album (although I reserve that title for a next song) and it and tore down a stage in Guyana National Park and it will do the same for your car, house, bathroom or wherever else you decide to spin it. Trust me, big tune. Second up is a COOL tune by the name of Bruk Meh Up which I don’t recall hearing before (although it sounds familiar for some reason). Bruk Meh Up is the type of tune I could easily see falling between the cracks and below the radar but, truth be told, its probably one of the best tunes you’ll hear on Work It. Definitely a SWEET groovy type of vibes and GOOD too. This is the type of tune I’d like to see Shelly G develop in the future because, with a tune like this, she shows promise that could put her on more familiar levels alongside people like future superstar Patrice Roberts from out of Trinidad. Another nice effort there. And then things get strange. The title track notwithstanding, if you know of Shelly G’s music you’ll almost find yourself waiting for her to do something. . . ‘different’ if you know what I mean. Shelly G’s sexual tunes are SO matter-of-fact that you almost get the feeling that she isn’t talking about what she is because, that would be too easy. But there’s a charm in there and Fishy Fishy is a nice example of that as Shelly gleefully questions the ‘dietary habits’ of a few of her favourite guys. Its hilarious at times as the seemingly attempted to be ‘veiled’ tune is just COMPLETELY wide open. I liked it, so will you.
As I said, Shelly G doesn’t quite reach critical mass on Work It and, as far as I know it, that’s not her style but what she does is quite good still. Much in the same fashion as Bruk Meh Up, there’s a tune buried on the album which is a bit older hit and, for me, is the cream of the crop that is the Work It album. The tune, Touch Me, I THINK would have been from her 2007 season but its been the best thing that she’s done in my opinion as it is the quintessential PLAIN, SIMPLE STATED and straight to the point tune which is a perfect example of her style (and maybe I’m partial having watched her in that video for the better part of a year). Another similarly vibed tune is the ultra cool Swing It which features Shelly G constant collaborator, Fojo. Again, there’s just a nice and easy going vibes on the tune which really allows Shelly to shine and Fojo himself doesn’t (at least not here) appear to be the most intense of individuals and from what I’ve heard, he makes an excellent vibes alongside Shelly G and the Chutney-esque Swing It is a sterling example. The very familiar sounding (which frustrated me because I can’t recall exactly where from I know the riddim) also shows that nice and straight forward quality, although to an arguably stronger degree than most as it proves to DEFINITELY be one of the main attractions on the album. Now, all of that isn’t to say that Shelly G is a one trick pony of sorts at all as you won’t get too far on Work It before a few different vibes start jumping up. Check the Dancehall infused Bad Girl, which may be literally the dirtiest tune on Work It, where Shelly does her Ce’Cile impression (there‘s also one point where you think she‘s going to go Busy Signal on you). Previous single Bump & Grind is a hybrid of sorts, as it definitely has a bit more complex sound to it but it’s a far ‘bigger’ sounding tune to my ears actually (Shelly even stretches the vocals a bit on the tune, which definitely has a ‘poppish’ type of vibes to it). Celebration Time, outside of the title track is probably where Shelly gets closest to completely losing her mind in a more hype Soca style. The tune features Fire Clan, which I believe is a Reggae act from out of Guyana also and it starts shining after the corny, preacher like intro. The tune is so nice actually that it leads you to think exactly how might Shelly G sound if she were given someone like the aforementioned Skinny Fabulous or Ricky T with which to work and go to the complete EXTREME hype Soca power style. I think she’d do quite well actually. And again, lest you think she’s a one trick type of a girl, check the last stretch of tunes on Work It which features SO MANY different styles. Bholo Bholo is a high-tech type of a Chutney tune which grew on me quite quickly; the pretty good Ooh Boy has quite a few different vibes and it nicely features Guyanese veteran chanter Fyahnese (one of the best names in the game!); the SULTRY Come Over is Shelly G nearly at her best backed with a nice old school Soca/Calypso riddim which she works to a very nice blend and is one of the best moments on Work It and Never Never is very well done and is on an R&B vibes and is probably ready for BET at this point right now. And as far as the vibes themselves, the two closers are perhaps most interesting. The first is a SWEET Zouk-ish tune by the name of Love Me, which quickly ascends into an even SWEETER sounding kind of a ‘smoky’ one-drop Reggae vibe which is MAGIC to my ears (after going Ce’Cile on Bad Girl, Shelly G steers things in a different direction going Alaine on the big highlight Love Me. Finally, Work It ends somewhat predictably with the gospel vibed Somebody Watching Over Me (it was either going to be a gospel tune or an acoustic tune and you KNEW it going in. Thankfully the tune isn’t boring at all (it’s like a Hip-Hop/Gospel tune with an unnamed rapper in tow) and although it is quite clichéd, it isn’t bad and even if it were, it would be wholly forgivable at this point.
Overall, this is SERIOUS stuff by Shelly G. With her style, I can’t imagine that she herself would tell you that she would have aspirations to others going COMPLETELY international like Rihanna or Shontelle but what this might do (and what I think the goal was) is up her status regionally. As I said, taking a Soca Monarch crown is potentially a REALLY big thing and she’s done that and at with her youth still intact, she figures, if she continues to develop musically, to be a MAJOR player in the years to come. And that’s not all. Work It may very well be only the first Shelly G album you see this year as she also plans to release a Reggae album with well respected Reggae veteran Walter Fraser from out of the Vizion Sounds camp and she has already worked alongside Guyanese BIG Reggae group First Born and Luciano. Thus, whether you like it or not, Shelly G might be on your radar quite a bit in the future. Thankfully, with more efforts like Work It, you’re probably going to like it (Oh. And she's sexy too!).
Rated 4/5 stars
Dynamix Music
2009
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