Boz – Karma Knows
There’s something very karmic in sitting in the snow in the sub-zero temperatures on top of The Atlas Mountains in Africa’s sub-Sahara and listening to this album. From the first percussion notes of Home With You to the sustained last chord of ‘Women and Wine’, this album is brilliantly easy to listen to!
‘How Long’ has a wonderful Mediterranean feel to it. The happy blend of instrumental and vocal provides an easy place for listeners to relax and enjoy! How can you not love the evocative feelings that accompany this track?
‘Reservation’ is aimed at highlighting the inequalities faced by the American Indians but it could, just as easily, be highlighting the plight of the Maoris in New Zealand or the Aborigines in Australia. Imagery is used to good effect; strong vocals, sympathetic accompaniment, a heady mix of rhythm, repetitive refrain and emotionally suggestive lyrics all combine to add considerable depth to this dramatic work.
Conversely, ‘After All’ has a slight feel of the ‘School of New Jersey’ about it; this track quickly yanks the listener from the deeper, darker thoughts of the previous track. ‘After All’ is an immediate toe-tapper despite the introspective messages in the lyric! This song is strongly reminiscent of some of the early-day ballads of Jon Bon Jovi and John Taglieri.
Many listeners will find ‘Thank You (in so many ways)’ an uplifting, meaningful piece of music. It beings with such a simple start that it almost commands the listener to ‘sit right there and listen to this!’ A neat trick! This track builds to a slow anthemic climax and pulls out all of the stops along the way; choral backing and synthesised organ are both used to good effect to add extra depth. This is one of the tracks that has religious bearings – a concept I’ll mention briefly later.
But the attention-grabbing beginning of ‘Thank You (in so many ways)’ needs special mention. Boz has a tremendously listenable, likeable voice. He never strays off note and he has the capacity to grab the listener’s attention with just a few well-placed notes. But above his intonation I love his breathing; this is the key to good vocals and Boz hits that simple requirement time after time. Coupled with the warmth of his delivery and his above average diction, these are two simple qualities that make it so easy to love Boz’s delivery!
‘All About Us’ is a slower ballad with a simple message behind the arpeggio-structured introduction. It really is all about us; a simple message of a relationship in time and finding the formula that binds people together. The sax solo in this track is a perfect foil for the lightly-strummed and plucked guitar parts. Although not similar, it recalled the beautiful solo in Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street and while the two sax parts played in my head, I experienced an unmistakeable glow.
The conclusion of the album with the Martin Sexton-composed ‘Women and Wine’ is a masterful choice. ‘Women and Wine never went too well’ says the lyric, does that make you smirk too? The simple instrumentation echoes many top quality musicians and, if there’s any justice in the world, this track will put Boz in front of the same ears that love The Waterboys and Jackson Browne.
But there is a minor downside to this album. This reviewer is very uncomfortable with religious messages, no matter how softly delivered, being wrapped up in popular music. The delivery of political views would not be acceptable to the wider audience, neither would messages of an ‘unfriendly’ religion. And to many people, all religions are unfriendly. There is a ready place in the ears of very many listeners for ‘uplifting’ music, just as there is a much smaller, tailor-made listenership for religious music. But overtly religious messages should not be focussed at the wider audience – it has a greater capacity to alienate the audience rather than unite it!
Summary
Karma Knows by Boz is an album of feel-good composition. This is ‘listen to it anywhere’ music at its best. Karma Knows is a pleasant mix of musical styles fronted by a very solid, personable, professional and entirely likeable delivery from Boz. This is the kind of uplifting, meaningful music I have on my iPod for those moments when I want to shut out the world while I reorder my senses. This is good music!
Brennig Jones
30th December 2008 |
