'Growing Pains': A Review of "Sirens From A Distance" by Crisopolis

Most recently I think I can recall speaking on the matter in the case of Bescenta, a veteran who, earlier this year, finally delivered his debut set, ”Genuine” - The case being the road Reggae artists tend to take, not only to albums, but to an overall level of development within the music. In Bescenta’s exact case, as is the case with so many of his peers, unfortunately, he had to wait quite some time before he reached the point of releasing an album and because of that, in part, when he finally did, the buzz surrounding the project was very high, as was the amount of promotion its company, Uplifting Music International, would subsequently put into the project. You can also add to that list names such as Chuck Fender (way back a few years ago with ”Better Days”), Ce’Cile and a few others who would, for various reasons be forced to wait to a very advanced stage of their careers before releasing albums and when they finally did, have projects which elicit a nice reaction within their fans. Because of that, and even in observing the likes of artists who did similar things with FAR less than stellar results in terms of quality or appreciation (see Madd Anju) (who, in retrospect, made a pretty good album because he was so skilled, which got virtually no attention whatsoever), I’m comfortable in saying that it is better to wait too long than to not wait long enough. The most glaring example of someone who didn’t properly developed and rushed into an album and her entire career for that matter is Ms. Thing. Remember her? Several years back the extremely young Ms. Thing was half of a world sized hit, the Dave Kelly produced ’Dude’, alongside Beenie Man. It was a very big tune and did basically put Ms. Thing on a scale on which it would soon be proven she wasn’t necessarily ready to be. Her album, ”Miss Jamaica”, would follow soon thereafter and it was pretty bad and just strange as well (more on that in a bit) and since then, while she has made the occasional dent in the studio, she’s made more headlines for swearing off clothes not too far from here. Ms. Thing’s case is one which is a bit extreme, but there have been other examples of rushing an artist. To my opinion Gyptian was another one earlier in his career. It would take his debut album full of tunes for most of us to discover that he couldn’t really write lyrics too well (although CLEARLY it worked out for him) and a few of the artists who went through Asia for their pieces, such as Mitch and even Voicemail who, despite spending a quality amount of time at the business, apparently rushed into things, in retrospect.

You know what? ”Burning Up” wasn’t exactly great either, so maybe we can only hope that Crisopolis manages to ultimately turn into such an artist as the legendary firebrand from August Town who starred on that release because his first album, ”Sirens From A Distance” . . . Yeah it isn’t doing too well. I first heard Crisopolis’ name a few years back - maybe two or three years ago - and he had a tune by the name of ‘Sieve Out’ which was RIDICULOUS! That was probably one of the finest tunes of that year, 2008 or 2009 and I had even heard his name from before that, but he had yet to make that type of an impact on me. After that, his was definitely a name which I looked out for as he had well established an impressive talent level just via that one song for me and, looking out for him, I had seen the occasional release ‘here and there’, but he wasn’t terribly active, which probably even made some of his releases stick out more for me (less is more). Crisopolis didn’t actually seem to kind of ’roll’ in any type of pack and I mean that in terms of comparison sake. You couldn’t line him up and really pinpoint someone to compare him to consistently (first of all because he didn’t seem to be vibing consistently) because he just wasn’t out there in the typical way as many of his peers and obviously that was because he had other ideas of what he wanted his career to be and where, exactly, he wanted to take it as well. The direction he had in mind, MOST SURPRISINGLY was arriving to an album before most people, even many hardcore Reggae heads, even knew who he was. I’m writing this review and I STILL don’t know a great deal about Crisopolis actually and you’re sitting there thinking of whether or not you want to read the rest of this review and if this album is for you . . . And you don’t know much of him either! So I was VERY surprised to see ”Sirens From A Distance” actually reach and I, even initially, had mixed thoughts. After doing the research I did see and was happy that Crisopolis had attained a nice bit of following for some of the same tunes I was listening to, but I simply thought that it was entirely too early for him to be going after an entire album at this point in his career and for two reasons primarily. First of all, and foremost, an artist needs that time to simply develop their craft. Pick whatever artist you like and compare them now to when they first started, or even a few years after and, if they’ve been around to any decent length of time, you’ll see changes in their skillset. Secondly, when I say “develop”, part of that process is also finding oneself in terms of what they want to be. This can especially be the case in Reggae music where that broad word - ‘REGGAE’ - can mean so many different little things musically to so many different people and some artists spend their entire careers attempting (unsuccessfully) to find themselves and their vibes and when you do it - if you do it - you also have to make your fans aware also and I felt as if Crisopolis wasn’t someone who had done that just yet. But, who knows maybe he could spring yet another surprise. These steps, although helpful, surely aren’t MANDATORY and who knows, maybe he had taken them and I wasn’t paying a great attention. Whichever the case (I’m leaning towards the former) it doesn’t seem to help on his debut album which is one of the most awkward releases of 2010. Let’s take a look!

'Gun War'

“Awkward” is a pretty good word for describing the album as Crisopolis does offer the not necessarily rare, but very frustrating flashes of brilliance in the midst of the awkward, strange and weird debut that is ”Sirens From A Distance”. And while, again, I can’t exactly think of to which Crisopolis can be relatively comfortably compared to on his vibes, I do think that vocally he might sound like a few different people (one of which is the previously alluded to Sizzla Kalonji, at times, when he does the singing style), but when he meshes things together he truly becomes one of a kind. Unfortunately the opener of the album, ’Distant Love’, is also such rare company because its one of only two or three truly good tunes on the album and, furthermore, I can see a lot of people disagreeing with me on that. However, in my opinion, the tune is an absolutely captivating lover’s track which stands SO far and away above any other similarly vibed tunes on the album that it’s nearly astonishing that they all come from the same artist. The only other tune on ”Sirens From A Distance” which has my unconditional support is my choice as the album’s finest moment altogether, ‘Gun War’, which is a STERLING and COMPELLING tune and one with which I was familiar prior to the album. This big social commentary, which passes through on the 3D Riddim is the finest lyrical display I’ve heard from Crisopolis to date and between it and a couple other decent tunes here and the aforementioned mastery that was ‘Sieve Out’, I think it’s crystal clear that the tune with the heavy social connotation is where this artist excels.

“It was here from before you got here
A lot of warriours get gunshot here
It’s a place, thirsty for blood
Hey, don’t stop there
Enough mothers lose dem son pon di block here
And for di fathers last year was a black year
Hey, if you check di statistics
You find out seh man ah dead by di tick of di glock here
It’s like a guns hop here
It’s like every gun make it haffi drop here”

BIG!

It’s moments like that - GENIUS - which makes going through some points of the album at other points, even more oddly labourious, because Crisopolis shows that he can be great right there.

There’re, also, a couple of tunes here which I think are pretty good, but not great. One of which is ‘Enemies’ which probably has the coolest chorus on the whole of ”Sirens From A Distance” and has this big and infectious vibes to it as well and, I really do enjoy it. Even better than that track is another tune I knew before the album, ‘Justice’ (which plays on the same GORGEOUS riddim as Junior Kelly’s big tune ‘Satan Throne’) which is another pretty big tune.

“Yow babylon your new policy is brutality
Di people caan take no more
Incompetent leaders, they are the deceivers
Well Jah Jah gwan strike dem for sure
Mi si weh dem provoke poor people to wrath
And when they should give, dem always come up short
The grassroots speech caan match dem big talk
So we left with dis yah question fi ask

Where is the justice?
Where are the ones to protect and serve?
Searching for answers
Cuz mi seh nuff get shot down like bird
Who‘s for the people?
I need no answers I‘ve already heard
Somethings wrong with their system
Why we‘re always the victim?
Those misleading shepherds”

I can’t help but to start singing Junior Kelly’s tune when I hear the riddim, but honestly Crisopolis isn’t too far off that pace either.

'Step Up Inna Life'

And that’s it! The rest of the nine tunes of ”Sirens From A Distance” fluctuate in quality from awful ‘all the way up to’ below average and that’s really unfortunate. Going back to the beginning, right after the beautiful opener is the album’s first and only official combination, ‘Ease The Pain’ which features Black Queen. To its credit (I guess), the song is only kind of bad and not necessarily totally bad, but it sounds like that stood right behind the big song which precedes it. It is, however, miles ahead of the tune which follows, ‘Caught Up’. This is just a completely bad love song and if you know my work, I rarely use such terms (even when they’re deserved I pride myself, usually, on being a bit more tactful and resourceful than that), but they are well appropriate in this case. ‘Ghetto Livity’ is another previous single from Crisopolis and it was never nothing too strong in my opinion, but in saying that, it’s probably (and unfortunately) one of the better tunes on the album. The song is more WEIRD than bad (and I wouldn’t call it bad at all actually) because it doesn’t particularly seem to set itself too firm actually and when you take a listen to it from a lyrical aspect, it’s very much lacking when compared to some of the other work here of a similar nature (especially considering that ‘Gun War’ strikes in immediately afterwards). I also knew ‘Step Up Inna Life’ from the fairly recent Stronger Riddim and I have no problems with it and were the album stronger (no pun intended) it would almost be better because it wouldn’t be ‘forced’ into a position of being a highlight because its basically an average song with great points and flawed points, but the fact that I’m going to call in one of the best songs on the album (and I am) says more about the album than the song.

'Ghetto Livity'

It’s likely that THE worst tune on the album is the . . . Thing that is the obligatory herbalist tune ‘Marijuana’. The song is like a dance song I suppose and with its electric effects its just strange as hell and bad on top of that and truly a worthless moment on the album altogether. The ‘large’ sound remains with the next tune ‘Afi Get It’, which is better than the previous tune but not by much. ‘Oh’ may just make me go back and change the distinction of the album’s nadir. This song is just really really bad with its inherent strange vibes and a message which doesn’t go further than many (or any?) of the tunes of a similar ideology on the album, it’s just not a good tune on any level in my opinion. I’m not particularly fond of ‘Ruff Life’, but it’s a lot better than ‘Oh’ - It’s pretty mundane and while it tries to earn its stripes in speaking of the hard circumstances so many people have to go through, it doesn’t paint the proverbial picture too well and it really doesn’t elicit much emotion of any type by its end. And speaking of the end, ”Sirens From A Distance” the album comes crawling to its end with ‘Sirens From A Distance’ the tune. This one is another mediocre piece which (for another reason in this case, obviously, being the title track) is thrust into a big light of attention, when it’s not that good of a song.

Overall, I would like to elabourate on that final point because I think that it may fit in to one of my prevailing sentiments on this album. Some of the songs, like the title track are seemingly ‘on the right road’, but they aren’t quite to the point where they are bonafide GOOD songs, at least not in my opinion (and what the hell do I know) and I think that’s a sign that Crisopolis hasn’t fully developed his skills just yet. And when you take that and look at the entirety of the album, and just how varied it ultimately is, I think that’s another sign to the same point. The main idea here is that this album was just too early. Of course, I well appreciate the effort and even if I don’t like it, as a fan (who likes to write about stuff) I well appreciate the effort and the ability to actually get it out, but I think I would’ve appreciated it even more in 2011 or in 2012. While not a complete disaster and far away, still, from ”Miss Jamaica”, ”Sirens From A Distance” is a puzzling and awkward piece of testimony as to why, sometimes, a little patience goes a really really long way.

Rated: 2/5
Crisopolis/RPR Production
2010
Digital

Crisopolis @ Myspace