'My Mother's New Home': A Review of "My Way" by Lady Saw

What would we do without Lady Saw? In my opinion, if there is anything that is to be successful in regards to human beings - ANYTHING - then there simply must be a significant feminine presence involved. Music is definitely included in such a statement and in the case of Dancehall music; I’m not at all going to make any reservations on saying that no female to date has had a greater “presence” than one Ms. Marion Hall - bka Lady Saw. Having reached the point in her career where she can claim nearly two decades in the business, Lady Saw’s career has seen the coming and going (and coming back and leaving again) (and coming back again) of so many female artists, several of whom were supposedly her ’heirs apparent’ that her longevity is . . . Well it’s honestly somewhat strange at this point and not only that, but it seems that despite, age-wise, being well passed her prime years of efficacy as a Dancehall artist, it seems as if, on the world stage, each year (even when she isn’t very active), she gets more and more popular in some respect. Now would certainly be the time to have her popularity at an all time high as Lady Saw ventures out as a businesswoman and an entrepreneur unlike she ever has in the past with her brand new album, the very appropriately titled ”My Way”. The course set in order to get to this point jumped up earlier this year when it was announced that Saw had, in fact, ‘walked out’ (more on that in a bit) and had gone the independent route and on her own, but such notion wasn’t met with the same type of FAKE joy which is typically given to more ‘mainstream’ artists when they do such a thing because they can no longer attract the interest of the big labels. Quite the contrary - Lady Saw had apparently been planning on doing this for some time and the fact that the album was actually on its way was a GREAT thing for her and, by extension, a great thing for Dancehall music in general which, as usual, is starved in 2010 for big name artists to release albums. While Lady Saw definitely bolsters that tiny lot (and if you don’t count Buju’s forthcoming album, which certainly isn’t Dancehall, then outside of Vybz Kartel (which was a re-release technically), she is the biggest name in the Dance to have an album in 2010 thus far and in the foreseeable future). What she also does, more importantly, is to give herself all the opportunity to cash in on her popularity and her WORK throughout the years and does so in the most fitting and most well deserved situation - On her own terms.

Lady Saw has released six studio albums to date in her career, prior to this one, and each and every one of them - from 1994’s ”Lover Girl”, up to 2007’s ”Walk Out”, appeared on industry leader VP Records. The label has also released two of her three greatest hits compilations [ ”Raw: The Best of Lady Saw” in 1998 and last year’s ”Extra Raw: The Best of Lady Saw”], countless singles and who knows how much other merchandise as well. To put it simply - Lady Saw is a VP artist true and through. Even with her final album for the label, the aforementioned "Walk Out”, it almost seemed as if her ’walking out’ and satisfying her contract had become a selling point for the marketing of the album. She was even seen on the cover dressed up, bags packed and heading out of the door and I would say that such a promotion would say exactly how much the label did TRULY like Lady Saw as the two entities had seemingly ‘grown up‘ together in the business. So, for her to go on and continue without the label behind her is yet another very interesting subtext to this already absolutely deliciously fascinating situation. Instead of VP Records, Lady Saw’s own Diva Records is at the helm of ”My Way”, along with Toasting Music, a label which was previously unknown prior to 2010 when they dropped the very smooth 18 & Ova Riddim (and if they do intend to stick around, then a Lady Saw album is definitely a very nice way to make an entrance). Besides the story behind the album coming through, of course, there’s the most important matter of the actual music itself. To my opinion, there was a time from the late 1990’s up until the early 2000’s where Lady Saw delivered what was literally PERFECT Dancehall music. She’d mastered the kind of ‘bouncing’ Dancehall riddims of the time and she didn’t seem to enjoy the same results when things got exceptionally hard and just dark, in terms of the riddims, though she did adjust and come back even stronger. But from a musical standpoint, the last thing heard about Lady Saw’s vibes was also very interesting. It may’ve been 2008-2009 where Saw claimed that she was taking her long crafted x-rated style and making it a thing of the past and she had changed her stripes. Time-wise, ”My Way" would be the first album on which the change would be reflected and ‘visible‘, but ultimately (just as you may’ve expected) (or at least you should have expected) (and hoped), there is certainly enough of the ‘old’ Lady Saw around to give it that genuine ‘extra rated’ appeal that she has literally trademarked in her sound. The album also covers a bit of what Saw has been up to as of late, as she has definitely scored a few nice tunes in recent months (one in particular) which have also kept her name around (as did featuring alongside Nicki Minaj on ‘Dang A Lang‘, a tune on ”Amazing”, the most recent album from US Hip-Hopper, Trina) and current. Therefore, seemingly the only question remaining is HOW GOOD is Lady Saw’s ”My Way” album and how good will it do. As for the latter, we’ll just have to wait, but I’d imagine that the inevitability of this one being plastered on the Reggae page of every version of iTunes will probably help, as will the likelihood of it being similarly shown on ’world music’ pages of a wide variety of types. The former, however, we can answer quite clearly and right now: Fans of Lady Saw’s music, new, old and somewhere in the middle are easily certain to enjoy ”My Way”.

Why? The album proves not to be such a big deviation from what she’s been doing in recent years. That shouldn’t be surprising for, despite just how big and powerful as her former label has gotten and the that she went five and half years without a studio release, REALLY it’s going to be hard for me to imagine someone telling Lady Saw what she can and cannot do musically. So while this album is OFFICIALLY called ”My Way”, the phrase could also, presumably, be used as a title for the last decade or so of Lady Saw’s career, if not the whole of it.

“Mi no need no makeover
Mi no waan no butt lift
Mi no waan no belly tuck
No facelift”

A rather agitated Lady Saw starts things out on the album’s first track, the cougar-affirming ‘Every Way Mi Go’. Basically what Saw is saying on the tune is that she ages very well and she eschews the miracle creams and not-so miracle surgery in favour of just taking care of herself properly and working out. There is certainly a greater message here, but the tune is literally vintage Lady Saw in terms of the attitude and while hopefully the message does carry through, the IMMEDIATE sonic appeal is what makes it an excellent starting point (oh and I don‘t care what you have done Lady Saw, just don’t touch the nose. Not the nose). And then we get a little crazy on the following tune, ‘Your Chick’. This one sounds like a very ‘moody’ Pop song, but again, it’s Lady Saw’s character which shines through as she slowly, but surely (and aggressively) pieces together the notion that the otherwise pretty lonely friend of her man’s isn’t so lonely at all because she . . . Well she has Lady Saw’s guy. You take any other artist and I probably am completely indifferent to the tune in their hands, but this one gets REALLY infectious REALLY quickly in Saw’s frame. ‘Bigga Than’ - With that BOUNCE reminds of that old school type of Lady Saw sound and while it doesn’t quite reach those levels it comes damn close and in the process not only proves itself one of the strongest lyrical attractions of ”My Way”, but one of the strongest tunes altogether. I always feel inclined to mention a song which doesn’t fall within the first few, but it’s probably the first tune on the album everyone knew that was going to be on the album, it’s the first single, ‘Party ‘Til December’. I’m not overly thrilled with this one and I kind of was surprised that they pushed this one initially because it is billed as a ‘party song’, but the vibes are kind of . . . Different? It’s not like a fast and stereotypical dance song, it’s slower and COOL is the word I’m thinking of. It certainly isn’t bad (not even close0, but from the reaction I’ve seen, it’s been doing well so, excellent choice by someone, albeit a bit strange.

When I heard that Lady Saw would (officially) be running the show on ”My Way”, I fully expected her to begin calling in favours in terms of who she would collaborate with, but she didn’t do that at all and instead she keeps the combinations short at just three (see note). The first and by far the biggest name of the trio is rap star, Eve, who checks in on ‘He Is At My House’. You could have probably predicted such a tune between the two, but the way it rolls through is pretty smooth and I haven’t heard a damn thing from Eve (who used to be a bonafide cutie) in more than a little while, so it was nice to hear from her as well and I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see Saw on her next project either. Camar always seems to be an artist seeking to increase his own profile in the music and his tune alongside Lady Saw, ‘Muscle Control’, is one which will certainly help him on that. I’ll speak more about this in just a second, but this is a very nice and danceable type of song, but . . . Yeah there’s something else about it. And lastly is dancer turned DJ, Ding Dong, who guests on ‘I Can’t Wait’. I’m not even a little bit of fan of Ding Dong’s music, but when you do well I give credit and he does well on the kind of love duet song between the two - He actually deejays and doesn’t break out into dance instruction in the middle of the tune, which is to be celebrated, given his history.

Of course, left on her own, Lady Saw doesn’t take the quality of ”My Way” down at all, in fact, as you might imagine, she takes things even higher. The title track is an excellent example. Chances are that you, like me, won’t immediately like this song. It’s very very strange in the way that it’s arranged - It’s not very smooth (outside of that chorus, of course), but it kind of is. I’m also having a very hard time imagining this one not receiving a significant response from the masses for some reason. Call it a Lady Saw special, but the tune works and in terms of the title and how it’s said (“I’m doing it MY WAY”), it definitely makes a powerful statement for the album in general, even though she’s just speaking about how well she treats her special man. ‘Cyaan Get Me’ is a WICKED tune and it is an example of what I meant earlier when I said that Saw had adjusted to the harder riddims, in place of the ‘lighter’ ones which she (at least in my opinion) absolutely dominated. There is some SERIOUS deejaying on the tune which Saw uses to make the point that it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than you might imagine to catch her eye. You’ll also want to check the somewhat hilarious ‘Facebook’, where Lady Saw tries to keep the drama from her social networking sites:

“Mi no waan no mix up pon mi Facebook
Mi no waan no drama pon mi Myspace
If a gyal have a issue haffi deal wid
War mi face to face”

There’s also another BIG tune down the stretch of the album by the name of ‘Beg U’ which should hit hard for the Dancehall heads because that one is SERIOUS. And speaking of “serious”, there’s what is easily my LEAST favourite tune on the album, ‘Crazy Love’. The song is TOO SERIOUS or maybe too crazy. I kind of feel dumb criticizing it on the basis of something which is CLEARLY overdone and done so on purpose, but if you listen to that song and feel like you just got scolded (and I mean personally), for not doing a damn thing then you aren’t alone. Thankfully, Saw turns things back positively for the album’s closer, a tribute to the women, ‘I’m A Woman’. I’m surely not the target audience for this song (nice, beautiful and ambitious woman vs. angry, not too easy on the eyes and jaded old ass man) and it isn’t amongst my favourites, but I can definitely hear its power and ultimate significance so, yes you may’ve very well expected such a song and when carried out it is done so very well.

So that’s it right? New Lady Saw album, ”My Way”. OH! There is the matter of the three little songs that I didn’t mention which feature the old school, a little dirty and incredibly tight lipped under the sycamore tree Lady Saw who just happens to be my favourite. The first example of such a brilliantly powerful entity comes on the Ward 21 produced ’Tighta’ which is exactly what you think it is about. It’s also damn captivating. Not as captivating or ‘gripping’, however, as the album’s finest moment, ‘Me Hold You’. It’s very gimmicky. The tune is a counteraction (in the friendliest way possible) to Gyptian’s hit tune ‘Hold Yuh’. What can I say? I LOVE this song, this is vintage Lady Saw and had she come with it originally, I think it would have been every bit the hit as Gyptian’s breakout tune. The song precedes the aforementioned ‘Muscle Control’ alongside Camar, which also fits in well here, but both precede the tune ‘5 Minutes’ . . . Now I’ll make this point quickly and then put a nice conclusion on this review because there is most certainly something else for me to write it never ends. First of all, the tune is GENIUS, the arrangement of it - Everything (especially the kind of ‘cliffhanging’ piece on the chorus). I love the tune. However, Lady Saw. Mumma Saw. Queen. Marion. If you have it ‘tighta’, the ‘hold’ and the ‘muscle control’ like that - Then the fact that all you get is ‘5 minutes’ . . . Yeah. No shock. None. I mean . . . You should be happy.

Overall, besides what appears to be a brain fart from the legendary DJ, Lady Saw’s ”My Way” is everything that it should’ve been in my opinion. As I said, despite the changes that have gone on behind the scenes (and in front of the scenes for that matter), the actual music itself isn’t very much of a deviation at all from what we know for being Lady Saw’s vibes. However, what I will say is that she probably hasn’t had an album which was as all-encompassing. Throughout ”My Way” Saw does really focus on a variety of different subjects and despite the granted fascination with her . . . Yeah - She does them all very well which is exactly what you’d expect. In situations like these, which involve a major change in ‘scenery’ for an artist in some form, I usually feel the need to speak on how newer fans might react, but I don’t in this case, because besides the few newer ones who will come just because they just heard of her, I really get the feeling here that despite being on her own, this album is for Lady Saw fans. If you are such a person or are potentially such a person - Then ”My Way” is nearly a gold mine for you because what it is, is the same Lady Saw who’s been thrilling you for years. Because despite this one being officially Lady Saw’s “way”, something tells that the undisputed Queen of Dancehall music has been doing it her way for years. Well done.

Rated: 4.35/5
Diva Records/Toasting Music
2010
CD + Digital
{note: The CD for the album has the tune 'I Can't Wait' but lacks 'Beg U' and vice-versa for the digital version of "My Way"}




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