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| "Righteous Synergy" by Akae Beka [Fifth Son Records] |
Okay so, I didn't really feel like making a big deal out of things this year like we used to do 'back in da day', but I did want to make the point of saying what my very favourite album of 2021 was. At no point until fairly recently would I have chosen "Righteous Synergy" as even the best Akae Beka album of 2021, favouring "Polarities" instead (and had I made a list this year, Akae Beka would have had both numbers one and two on it) (Pressure probably would have had three). However, very recently I once again decided to DIG into "Righteous Synergy" and.... it started to glow. There're only ten songs on this album from Fifth Son Records, they account for just shy of fifty-one minutes and if you REALLY tune them in, they are just about fifty-one of the most PERFECT minutes I have heard in a really long time. I look at this set now as maybe one of the most emotional bodies of work from the legendary Vaughn Benjamin. It is not 'his thing'. He doesn't work that way. But I hear such a SOUL in much of this work, pinnacling on 'Do My Best' where he sounds weary and almost broken in saying THE most lasting line of 2021:
"Knowing as I do
That I did my best for you"
In my humble opinion, he did the best of anyone last year. "Righteous Synergy" was The Best Reggae Album of 2021.
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