Album Review

Messiah J & The Expert – From the Word Go

• 6th Nov 2008

“Attention, gimme your attention!” demands Messiah J on the upcoming single ‘Megaphone Man’ from his 3rd studio album ‘From the Word Go’. Should we take heed of the Messiah’s call? We would be well advised to do so as there is enough of the familiar here combined with new musical pastures to make this album well worth a listen.

One of Messiah J’s greatest strengths is his knack for managing to successfully navigate the tightrope act of writing entertaining songs while imparting a worthwhile lesson to us. It would be all too easy for songs such as ‘Tomorrow is Too Late’ to descend into sermonising, but the Expert’s best compositional work coupled with the lyrical phrasing and wit of Messiah allow the song to emerge as a rousing rallying call.

The quality of musical production on display in this album is a big step up from ‘Now this I’ve Gotta Hear’. The results should be of great encouragement for Messiah & the Expert to keep exploring fresh musical horizons, with ‘Jean is Planning an Escape’ providing the only bum note amid a host of successful forays into, amongst others, reggae (‘Amnesia Comes Easily To Me’) and disco soul (‘Turn The Magic On’).

However the bombast that the brass provided has not been lost in the reshuffle and indeed two of this albums best tracks ‘Megaphone Man’ and ‘Tomorrow is Too Late’ epitomise the sound which makes the Messiah J & Expert experience so exhilarating.

So if you haven’t done so already you really are overdue to sit up and pay attention to what Messiah J & the Expert have to offer, and there is no better starting point than ‘From the Word Go’.