Major Lazer Music is the Weapon Album Review
For three years now Major Lazer, a music production and DJing group have been exploring sounds from African and the Caribbean. This has seen them journey to different parts of African to intimate themselves with the African sound. From the popular Afrobeats to other popular Afropop sounds. Music is the Weapon album is an album which has Major Lazer make different sounds while mixing it with Jamaican musical elements.
The album is not about lyrics but about dance and partying. They created the album for people who are ready to party and turn up. The only thing that is European about the album is the addiction of some Tecno and EDM sounds to the mixing of the songs. In this Review we will be talking more on the sound because that where the emphasis of the album lies. Although all the songs are not going to be analyzed, what we will try to do is explain some of the unique songs.
THE PRODUCTION
Major Lazer wanted to create a wonder universal album and where they got their sounds from are really out of the box. Working Nucleya and Rashme they created a Hindi tune which can turn up any dance flow. This song is titled “Jadi Buti” and it is a blend of three genre of music. Having Indian music influence, Major Lazer created a beat which has a blend of Jamaican dancehall reggae with Hindi sound elements. The vocals which sound bollywoodish are also accompanied with Indian percussion in the pre-chorus. The party mood of the song is powered with some EDM/Techno sound element giving it a real turn up quality.
“Hell and High Water” which features the vocal skills of Alessia Cara talks being grateful after going through the downs of life. Alessia sings about going through hell and water which is part of life but claims that she is grateful because being alive if something to be thankful for. The beat of this song is a blend of RnB and Reggae. Again mixing their sound with some Jamician sound, Major Lazer created a sound which mixes RnB, EDM and Reggae. It has EDM because of the transition effects with which they blend other sounds to the Reggae elements. However, the most dominant element of this song is reggae. There is the usual lead guitar sound, a play of horn instrument and unique transition drum rolls.
In an Epic song which they created with Skip Marley, they created a really groovy hiphop song. “Can’t take it from me” talks about always owning one’s dreams. According to Skip no one can take a person’s dreams from him or her. The song which characterized with a play of horn instruments in the after chorus interlude is a really dope arrangement. Also the hiphop influenced beat is also characterized by risers even though it starts as a cool jam. There is also a small element of Reggae in the song as can be head the rolling kick in the pre-chorus.
Major Lazer working with the help BEAM and Shenseea made a Jamaican dance hall song titled Tiny. The song which talks about wanting a Jamaican girl who is relatively slim in nature; who has a clean and good sexual device-was made to have a blend of different sound elements. At the base of the sound is Electronic dance music and a blend of some hiphop. In the chorus which edited with a phaser sound effect, they mix it with a little bit of ponpon snare. This gives it with a good party feeling especially when the patios language mixes with the electrifying EDM risers.
Finally, working with Marcus Mumford they created a song titled “Lay Your Head on Me”. The song which is a blend of Afro-house music and a little of elements of country/folk music is a cool jam which talks about putting one’s trust in another person. The vocals of this song was made the lot of country music influence. The percussion is made with some elements of RnB but tweaked into Afro-house in the chorus interlude beat. As head in most of the songs in this album, there is also the addition of some EDM elements to create a good turn up quality of the song.
