The Vault Reviews: "No Holding Back" by Wayne Wonder

As the sun sets on the prime years of the light shone upon the latest batch of Reggae and Dancehall stars to achieve a look from mainstream eyes, surely the Reggae community begins to look for its next big international draw. In the not too distant past we look at names such as Sean Paul, Elephant Man and of course Shaggy, arguably the most popular of them all, as artists who have ascended through the ranks of the genre through various ways and, again, have now seemingly made room for others. They all come from very interesting backgrounds when you really think about it and how exactly they managed to reach the levels that they did is somewhat surprising, retrospectively. In the case of Shaggy, the simple argument could be made that he is, in fact, THE most popular Reggae-ish artist EVER after Bob Marley. In my opinion, what may be most remarkable about Shaggy is his career trajectory which originated in the States before booming on the worldwide level. Since then, and in recent years, Shaggy has began to solidify his actual strength and fan base in the Caribbean, where, he is arguably more popular than ever (and his charitable work hasn’t hurt that either). In the case of Sean Paul it seems very random. Paul was a big named, although ‘middle of the pack’ type, DJ prior to the days of ‘Gimme Di Light’ and while he was surely one of my personal favourites before the bust (he lobbed up ”Stage One” in the process, one of the greatest pure Dancehall albums of all time), the fact that he did maybe THE greatest shock in the history of modern Dancehall music. Ele is slightly different given the fact that his international bust came at a time where his Jamaican popularity was at its peak and, if anyone were going to make that leap (who hadn’t already such as Beenie Man), Elephant Man, given his very transferable style (even if international heads couldn’t overstand what the hell he was talking about), seemed like the most logical and likely candidate. Still, if you continue to go through and look at other names in that pack who have managed to make that leap, you get to very unlikely characters such as Sizzla (albeit very brief in his case), the (not at all) very personable Mavado and even people like Tanya Stephens to a degree whose respective rises to prominence just . . . Seem very unlikely and very very interesting at the least.

One my favourite such artists who have achieved that special limelight is definitely Wayne Wonder. I could probably sit here very confidently and outline the case for Wonder, after nearly a quarter century in the game, being THE greatest Dancehall singer of all time and even if that isn’t the case (with respect to Beres Hammond and Sanchez, of course) he’s certainly ‘right up there’. A few years back, around the same time as Sean Paul’s time to shine, the light ever so slightly and briefly bent in the direction of the veteran singer from out of Portland and did so, largely, on the strength of a single tune backed by a single BOOM (more on that later). What was most interesting and downright SATISFYING was that, in Wayne Wonder’s case, it wasn’t like a ‘lifetime achievement award’ - Not even at the time - But instead it was just due to the fact that his material was just that strong and people around the world began to feel it and although it didn’t last very long to memory, chances are there is a HUGE number of fans who will never forget his name and should they encounter more of his music (Say - Blown up on the Reggae page of iTunes) in any way, they’re likely to remember it and the music as well. And the song, although unusual, was merely emblematic of what Wayne Wonder had spent his entire career doing - MAKING HITS. So much so was this the case and so well liked was he at the time, having ran for many years in the absolute highest strand of the Dancehall (particularly on combinations alongside the exceedingly well known Buju Banton), that the type of backlash received by Elephant Man and DEFINITELY Sean Paul within the community of hardcore fans, was eluded by Wayne Wonder and done so with almost no effort at all. People were happy for the man at the time as they should have been. Everything with Wonder’s run in the mainstream would pinnacle back in 2003 (has it been that long???) with the release of the ”No Holding Back” album for the MAJOR Atlantic Records, courtesy of VP Records. Up until that time, Wonder, although not the most active in terms of releasing studio albums, had already done well with projects. Most notably there was the ”Da Vibe” album, from three years before for Dave Kelly and Madhouse (released on Artists Only Records), which featured a slew of Wonder’s biggest hits at the time such as ’Joy Ride’, ’Bashment Girl’ and ’Keep Them Coming’ (and just looking back on it right now, that album was REALLY strong) and was, essentially and proverbially, the ‘measuring stick’ for ”No Holding Back”. So how did it measure up exactly? Very well actually. The older album had a sound which was one on which Wayne Wonder largely made his name, but it could not have that sound - One which was pretty straight forward and not always the most dynamic, which is somewhat strange for a singer - and be SPECTACULAR at the same time for the most part. This album had more than its fair share of FLAMING moments. Certainly that was due, at least in part, to the wonderful production, but to my opinion, again, one of the most interesting things about Wayne Wonder’s mysterious rise to international stardom was that it coincided with him simply STEPPING UP. He began to be a ‘better’ and more complete artist and that’s definitely saying quite a lot because what he was doing prior to it was more than enough to make him one of the best singers we’d ever had in the Dancehall (and still that‘s not to say that this album is actually better than “Da Vibe“). By its end, ”No Holding Back” continued to distinguish its star because it may’ve just been one of the, if not THE greatest ‘crossover’ Reggae or Dancehall albums of all time.

'No Letting Go'

In order to fulfill such lofty declarations, ”No Holding Back” from Wayne Wonder comes equipped with some of the biggest names in production at the time (and at this time too). Highlighting the party is definitely Stephen ‘Lenky’ Marsden who provides the necessary ‘boost’ more than one time here. But also there’re the likes of Don Corleon, Donovan Germain, Tony Kelly, Lefside & Esco and others manning the production sets here. Following a Lenky produced ultimately expected and harmless Intro, the album also comes outfitted with one of the biggest stretches at the beginning of an album in recent memory of such albums. First up is the aforementioned “BOOM” and the greatest tune to be found on the album kind of named after it, the also Lenky produced ‘No Letting Go’. This tune was probably the biggest drop on one of the biggest Dancehall riddims of all time, the infectiously immortal Diwali. There isn’t much to say here, the song was absolutely dazzling and it largely fueled Wayne Wonder’s rise and the case could be made that, all these years later, it still is. ONE OF THE BEST DANCEHALL SONGS OF THE LAST DECADE. Next up is a tune which, clearly although not as strong, is so well placed because it keeps that set vibes of the ridiculous opener going, ‘Bounce Along’, which I believe was the album’s second official single. The tune doesn’t have that ‘built-in’ dynamism of the opener, but it’s not far actually and the well spotted claps are also still intact. The next tune, ‘Friend Like Me’, goes in a bit of a different direction on the whole, but it is also quite dazzling (not the best written tune, but dazzling nonetheless) and a real winner as well. ‘Nobody But Me’ is easily the weakest link of the opening lot, but even it has some redeeming qualities on a certain level and while there is less than stellar material here (more on that in just a minute), I don’t rank it in that batch because of the prevailing vibes of the tune which are . . . Yeah. I really hate to keep using the word ‘infectious’ (even though I love it!), but that is what it is. Finally there’s the second biggest selection on ”No Holding Back”, ‘Glad You Came My Way’ which rides across Lenky’s Masterpiece Riddim. It’s interesting because just like the tunes, the riddims themselves kind of come in succession of 1A to 1B from the Diwali to the Masterpiece and as he arguably had the finest songs on both, certainly Wayne Wonder is as fine of an existing example of such relationship.

'Bounce Along'

Although I used the word pertaining to the album in reference to ‘crossover’ attempts, I do not actually want to portray ”No Holding Back” as being a GREAT album because it has its fair share of soft spots in its duration and particularly in its latter stages. Check a song, for instance, such as ‘Just Another Day’. This song is pretty boring for the most part and melancholy on top of that which just doesn’t work too well for Wonder, and particularly not here. The tune which follows it, ‘Close Your Eyes’, although clearly better than the one which precedes it, still isn’t very strong actually. ‘Perfect Proposal’ is . . . Pretty AWFUL actually and has nothing about it which might warrant multiple listens past number one (with the exception of that riddim which is so beautifully simple that you could probably get the same satisfaction on a hundred different vibes). Later on we get the second of three official combinations on the album, ‘Metal & Steel’ which features Demo Delgado and Showki Ru, both of whom are best known for the material they’ve done for Wonder and alongside him, but the tune is less than average to my ears and I probably am more indifferent to it these days as I’ve ever been. Oh and ‘The Mood Is Right’ is pretty useless also, but only BARELY, it’s better than any of the tunes I’ve mentioned here, not that it’s hard to be that.

But! Helping to make up for those dry spots on the album are, along with the opening selections, just a few more nice vibes sprinkled in helping raise up ”No Holding Back”. The best remaining tune is probably ‘Definitely’ (you KNOW I would love this tune, the title alone is a beautiful thing, definitely). The tune is a lover’s piece, but it is HEAVY. With Fatta & Bulby helming the boards on the tune, what we end up with is this kind of beautifully AGGRESSIVE love song which kind of reaches back into the more straight forward style of Wayne Wonder’s music, but again, it comes with much more of a discernible flare on this album than perhaps prior to it, to some extent. And speaking of flare, Tony Kelly offers some of the brightest vibes to be found here with ‘My Kinda Lady’.

“There comes a time in life
When you must, who you must be yeah
And by your vibes I find
There’s still a few with good qualities”

The tune didn’t do much damage if I recall correctly (Kelly always seems to highlight the actual albums in crossover or mainstream situations with big big vibes, but his tunes don’t always seem to get the greatest of pushes (although he did do one of those smashes from Beenie Man, I’m sure) (and probably more than one actually), but for me it’s been a personal favourite of mine and if you dig into it, or if you already have, I’m sure it’ll rate highly for you as well. And even more opportunities for ‘flare’ exist when you add another voice which is exactly what happens on ‘Crazy Feeling’ which rides Don Corleon’s Krazy Riddim and features the aforementioned Elephant Man. It is the highest profile combination here and while it isn’t outstanding it was close enough to do a nice damage and listening to it now, for the first time in how long, it’s pretty good (especially Ele’s final verse). The third combination, ’Enemies’, features Supriz, which is Wayne Wonder’s DJ alter-ego. I do pretty much like this tune, but I’ll qualify it to some degree by saying that almost every time Wonder deejays, I’m a fan. I think he’s excellent at it and an album simply isn’t going to happen, but I could go for a Supriz mixtape or something like such, definitely.

'Saddest Day'

For some reason I kind of like ‘Slowly But Surely’, I don’t actually know why, so I’ll leave that there. And finally and predictably ”No Holding Back” ends with ‘Saddest Day’ which was Wayne Wonder’s biggest solo hit prior to the starring attraction of this album and you know some guy in a suit somewhere analyzed it and said “oh yeah, we should put that on there too”. Well, it was a good idea in the sense that the tune is EXCELLENT and a case could be made for it actually being the best tune here, but it was also a bad idea because its inclusion on this front gave it no added shelf life - Not that it needed it.

Overall, I do want to stress that this album is not a great one, but within the context that it exists - as a ’mainstream’ or ’crossover’ album - it’s probably about as ’great’ of an effort that we’ve seen to date (it would be in the same category with some of Beenie’s better releases in my opinion). From a musical point of view, as I said, the good portions of ”No Holding Back” are actually spectacular moments and they’re not just spectacular moments for the artist, but for the entire genre and of course, in the far reaching senses as well. For the artist, Wayne Wonder’s rise to prominence is definitely a ‘feel-good moment’ for the entire genre. While we may have artists seemingly arrive to grandest stage of music, as a whole, it seems even more fulfilling and just GOOD when one can, through some of the humblest and most hard working of situations, gain the biggest prize and make the best of his time there as well. Well done.

Rated: 3.999999/5
Atlantic Records/VP Records
2003 CD + Digital
Wayne Wonder Wayne Wonder @ Myspace