► Levi Roots - Red Hot

Retro / Music Reviews / October 2009 / Levi Roots

Red Hot it’s Not

By Alex Brady

Levi Roots; most of us will know him for his appearance on Dragons’ Den where we were introduced to his Reggae Reggae sauce, but apparently he does music as well, and he’s been doing it since the 80s! Who knew?

Many will view this as a promotional stunt for his sauce, but I managed to keep an open mind while listening, and I hope you do too. Root’s reggae album, “Red Hot”, will be released later this year, and his 12 track effort has left me a little down hearted. Firstly because tracks 1 and 12 are different versions of the same song, which is a bit lazy, secondly because it’s let him down. The first track, “Share Love”, got everything off to a good start, with simple guitars and gentle vocals creating superb mellow listening. After that you may as well have recorded him being pushed down the highest peaks of the alps, it would’ve made for better listening. The artificial violins and random metallic noises found in “So Out of My Mind” reminded me of cheap Christmas shopping music, a quality shared with most of the other tracks. And why did he have to quote Shakespeare!? It doesn’t fit anywhere in the track and you spend most of the following song, “Cool Me Off”, wondering why it was included, which is a shame because it’s one of the better sounds on the album.

The biggest let down though was the strained backing vocals. Ever so slightly out of tune but very annoying; listen to a few seconds of “U.S. Africa” to get a good idea of what I’m on about. To add to that, it was the greatest element that brought Roots tumbling down. His voice is a splendid mix of Bob Marley and Shaggy, though softer and with more emotion. The backing singers drew your attention away from his vocals and left you scurrying into a musical corner, desperately trying to escape them. He has the potential to be a damn decent artist and if you do keep an open mind, you’ll be able to hear it as well, he’s just been let down by everything else that makes an album worth listening to.