Not All That Glitters...: A review of Care About Me by Junior Kelly

Ab normal. It requires some very satisfying diligence but the reward for paying attention and keeping track of certain things can be downright life-changing at times. In this particular medium, I'm so happy to say that writing for this blog has both forced me to attempt to stay up with things going on in music but it's also long brought me to a place where people will help me. I've gotten so many fine suggestions over the years from readers and people in the industry alike that have stuck with me and will continue to for the rest of my days. We've talked about some truly talented individuals who, as they develop and ply their trades, have supplied the world with some absolutely amazing sound that I probably wouldn't have stumbled across otherwise as, seemingly, the more they work, the greater the possibility of something truly special occurring. On the other side of that: The tag counter on this blog currently says that I have written 663 reviews. Over the years, I've found some that haven't been labeled correctly and I've written quite a few other review-like articles as well. I have a secret for you: Some of them are trash. Some of them (probably a few dozen at this point) are extremely poorly written and repetitive and bland and that's just the way it is. If you do something often enough, eventually you'll do it badly (if you walk enough, you'll stumble; talk enough, you'll say something dumb), regardless of how talented and good at it you may be. Even the greatest athlete has a bad game and the greatest actor has turned in a few duds in their career for whatever reason. Sometimes we try to [over]analyze and find out the reason and sometimes we're able to do it but, maybe, the ultimate, underlying reason is that we are human beings - therefore we are INCREDIBLY FLAWED and that's just fine (well it isn't but... it has to be because we can't do anything about it). So while I have no concept of certain others paths, I'm definitely full of empathy when I come across something that may be less than what I expect. I'm a Sizzla fan, he remains my absolute favourite and, specifically given the ridiculous size of his output, Kalonji has probably had more BAD full albums than several of his peers have albums altogether (and it's been a minute since he's had a good one in his current form). And despite that, I'm still a fan. At his pinnacle, that man made music that changed my life and I wouldn't be doing this at all if not for what he's done.

So the good news is that, after today, I will still be a Junior Kelly fan. There is bad news though, unfortunately. On the surface, in continuing the beautiful run that we've been experiencing in 2026, throwing yet another log on this fire is a great thing. Specifically in sticking with his peers -- in terms of decorated and celebrated modern Roots Reggae artists -- Kelly joins the likes of Capleton, Queen Ifrica, Buju Banton (even though that was a Dancehall album, he still counts), Anthony B, Gentleman and others (Torch) in releasing an album. Furthermore, I was pretty happy when I learned what, or WHO, the circumstances behind the new release was (<that makes no sense at all but stay with me, I'm going to clean it up). A Junior Kelly album in 2026 produced by Al.Ta.Fa.An is downright appetizing as the outfit has been amongst the most reliable of the era (and they still are after this) but.... something happened fairly on in listening to "Care For Me" and it... just never quite recovered.

2013

Right after I finish this, I'm going to get going on the next Signatures feature which will have Junior Kelly as its subject, so I won't spend a great deal of time on his background but the probable pinnacle of him, on the album side at least, came during his time with VP Records. 2001's "Love So Nice", so named after what remains the biggest hit of the Kingston native's career, is the single finest set of his Junior Kelly's entire career but artist and label also produced magic two years on with "Smile"; another two years on, in 2005, with "Tough Life" ["Buckle up mi belt; lace up mi boot. Ready fi kill di devil; ready fi slew di brute"] and then again in 2010 with the criminally overlooked "Red Pond". So, he has FINE efforts to his credit and I could go half a step back for pieces such as a "Rise", "Juvenile" and a personal favourite of mine, "Conscious Voice" (I'm going to have so much fun putting together a Signatures for Junior Kelly!), all from the just around the turn of the century. You'll also find a pretty solid and very interesting release in Kelly's catalogue, dating back to 2013, by the name of "Piece Of The Pie". That album was distributed through a wing of VP Records, VPAL, and was produced by a little label that went by the name offfffffffffff Al.Ta.Fa.An. I enjoyed "Piece Of The Pie from the first time I heard it and it's grown in stature in the subsequent years as it features a pair of bona fide personal classics for me in 'Creator' and 'Dem A Wonder', the latter featuring our old friend, Smiley (who just up and retired one day) (biggup Smiley). "Piece Of The Pie" is just a very solid slice of modern Roots Reggae music and it showed (as if you need proof of such a thing) that Junior Kelly could get on quite well with Anthony Senior, Taffari and co. at Al.Ta.Fa.An. On top of that, Kelly and "ATFA" have a direct history going all the way back to the early 2000s which would include a relatively sizable hit he scored atop one of their very popular riddims, the Tsahai, 'Receive'. And just in case you're unfamiliar and don't know their history, ATFA has worked alongside.... pretty much everyone including.... yeah, pretty much everyone you can think of and have made full albums with several of them as well. So with all of that in consideration, it goes to make it even stranger that in 2026, Junior Kelly & Al.Ta.Fa.An do an album together that is.... pretty bad, actually. This is an ugly job and it will not be fun. Let's just get it over with. 

When he's in the vicinity of his best form, Junior Kelly has a very dynamic and exciting style to him. He combines this big, beautiful and BOOMING chanting voice with a strong sense of melody and it results in a catchy, infectious brand of Roots Reggae music. He also has some a little spite to him as well. He has this RASP to his voice which he uses liberally to strong effect (Determine also had something similar but was less talented, vocally, and more talented, lyrically, than Kelly) (Determine, lyrically, was more talented than damn near everyone). I say that to you as a reference; what to look for when you are actually hearing him doing well, because you'll find very little [virtually none] of that throughout "Care For Me". This album is odd; it's messy (in a bad way) and it's... just... not pleasant to listen to which is a damn tragedy in regards to a piece of music from Junior Kelly. I'll give you a good example of precisely what I mean as the very first tune on Junior Kelly's new album, "Care For You", 'Biginning Of Wisdom', shows it off perfectly. Two things before we even get into the actual music: First of all, I don't know if that's an intentional misspelling of the title or a typo but it's very strange; even stranger is the fact that it's the title at all. It has nothing to do with what is actually behind it and I didn't hear "beginning [or "biginning"] of wisdom" in the song at all, as a statement. As for the song, once upon a time, before I had actually laid ears on the complete tune and was just listening through [chorus heavy] clips of it, I had earmarked it as a/THE potential winner for this album. It most certainly is not and, again, it largely shows what the problem with the entire album behind it is.

Besides the chorus, it almost seems like Junior Kelly's headphones are not working properly because it often appears as if he... doesn't even hear the damn riddim at all. There's a huge disconnect between his delivery and the actual riddim (speaking of the riddim, it's gorgeous. I don't know the name of it but it sticks in my mind as the same one behind the MASSIVE 'Don't Cry' by Anthony B & Mark Wonder). The end-product is a damn mess and just no fun to listen to at all... but it's still one of the better songs on this album. Up next is a tune that starts off sounding pretty nicely but, SHOCKINGLY, soon falls apart (and it doesn't even wait until the chorus to do it), 'Take From The Poor'.  The tune features Luciano-styled vocalist, Jah Eyes who, PROBABLY, steals what little 'show' there actually is as Kelly, himself, isn't in a good way here; he's frenetic and spotty. The song also isn't written well at all (on either end) and its legitimate highlight comes near its end where the instrumentals are allowed to play completely sans vocals. To his credit, I have heard other tracks from Jah Eyes and he's better  than the taste you'll get from him on 'Take From The Poor'. While 'Hurt So Bad' does not cause actual physical pain to listen to, it will require quite an effort. This one is flash with no substance at all, atop a kind of a Jazzy type of riddim (which may not actually be so bad if you take it out of this atmosphere and place it in a different space): It does absolutely nothing with its broken-hearted approach. The vocals are chaotic and the delivery is poor and 'Hurt So Bad' really has no redeeming qualities in my opinion... but it still isn't the album's WORST moment, one tune here actually manages to outdo... underdo it. "Care About Me" has a peculiar relationship with combinations as it both hits its ground-level heights and FLATLINES with such creations, The best song on this album is either 'Powerfull' or 'Children Are The Future', featuring Aimann Raad & Blessed, respectively. I want to stress the point that neither of them are anything special and if I had to rank them as tunes, 'Children Are The Future', which I would rank slightly higher, would probably tick in somewhere in the range of 5-5.5 at best (and listening to it now.... I'm thinking about lowering that ceiling). They both do, however, at least make a conscious attempt at maintaining a melody. 'Powerfull' for its part is damn odd (it's another one that seems to have a slight disconnect between vocals and riddim... something's just OFF with that damn song) while 'Children Are The Future' is dripping in mediocrity and did I mention there's the best that it gets for this one. 

"Care For Me" hits proverbial rock-bottom during the other piece here which enlists some help, 'Relax'. Here, Junior Kelly taps someone I've never heard of, Ras Kuda, and, together, the two create.... TRASH. Take an uninspired, STRANGE, delivery and combine it with virtually no lyrics of substance and you have a legitimately BAD song which is what 'Relax' here and it's a damn shame as it's a waste of what is a SWEET riddim... the same one that plays behind the aforementioned classic, 'Dem A Wonder'. THAT song was excellent - this song is not. Also settling somewhere super-south of sublime is the awkward title track. I've decided to stop making the same complaint about these songs and, instead, will just reiterate prior to closing this review out but 'Care For Me' features the same warts as many of the songs on the album named after it but, to its credit (I GUESS), it's on the better side of efforts on the album, though, AGAIN, far from anything substantial, while being crude and graceless as it could possibly be. 'Make You Happy' is a song with which I was familiar (and I knew it because as soon as I heard the chorus I started singing along with it) but I know it under a different name, 'Try Me', on the Devil's Angel Riddim (that Bunji Garlin once blessed with the brilliant 'Mr. Murder'). 'Try Me' wasn't very good though, for some reason, I remember it being a little better than 'Make You Happy'... if that makes any sense. The chorus is one of the finest on the entire album but everything apart from it is a step or two beneath average; actually making it one of the best songs on this thing. The obligator ganja tune, 'Mi Chalice', does have a moment or two ["Herb mi ah push up inna trolley and stroller"] but it also features the same, running critique I have of many [virtually all of them] of the others on "Care For Me" which I will get back to right after I tell about the final song, the half woeful/half awesome 'That Empress'. I'll make this one quick for you:

"You won't want your man back cause I'm the king in the sack"

That ^there^ is all you need to know about the vocals on 'That Empress'. HOWEVER and THANKFULLY, Kelly sits out the final three and a half minutes or so of the song and we just get the riddim itself and, because of that, if you wanted to overlook its first forty percent or so and just call 'That Empress' THE best song on the album - go right ahead and, frankly, they could have done this with the other nine songs and we all would have been better off for it. 

Okay! As I've been alluding to (and as I've even said a few times), there is a glaringly prevailingly AWFUL 'trend' found throughout "Care For Me" which is a consistently bad delivery from Junior Kelly. No, it isnt the best written either but you could live with it and the music is just fine; what makes the album so damn difficult to listen to, in my opinion, is Kelly, himself. He is in a poor form. Gone is his command of melody and wonderful usage of that BIG voice that he has. It's gone on holiday for this album and that's a damn shame. "Care For Me" is a Junior Kelly album that is really tough to listen to and that just should not happen.

Overall, like I said, a miss here and there is just going to happen (by comparison, "Care For Me" is still better than what I consider to be Sizzla's worst album, "Addicted") and it has CLEARLY happened here. The album, literally, seems like it hamstrings its star (...to the fault of its star); it takes what he does best and minimizes it as much as it possibly can. There's also something kind of just... OFF about it, in general. It feels like it was hurried about - with the typo of the first song title (and how strange it is) and the renaming of another tune and then, of course, how much [...virtually all of it] of it sounds. On paper, you take "New Junior Kelly album, produced by Al.Ta.Fa.An" and you've got my attention, my anticipation and I'm all over that thing but what happens turns out to be one massive disappointment. Off the top of my head, "Care For Me" lays a a major claim to being both one of the worst albums Junior Kelly has ever done AND one of the worst anyone has ever done in 2026. Awful. 

Rated: 1.5/5

Al.Ta.Fa.An

2026