Wednesday, March 29, 2006  

So? You Expected Hardcore?
Matisyahu's 'Youth' Is Catchy Reggae Lite

By Christopher Porter
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, March 29, 2006; Page C05

Two years ago, Matthew Miller began his rise as a media darling. As the reggae rapping Orthodox Jew Matisyahu, he scored minor hits with his first two albums, and music writers everywhere rushed to laud him as "more than just a novelty act." Fast-forward to the release of "Youth," though, and the story line has changed: Matisyahu's now being hammered as the latest in a long line of minstrel acts to hit the pop charts.

But why such ire? He's hardly the first white artist to succeed by appropriating black music and culture -- even in reggae.

The Clash took Jamaican music and disseminated it to the punk rock masses, as did numerous second-wave ska bands. And just last year Sinead O'Connor was largely spared the stick for "Throw Down Your Arms," which featured the Irishwoman doing Rastafarian roots reggae. But perhaps O'Connor escaped critical wrath because her CD didn't beat first-week sales of every reggae album in Billboard chart history, as "Youth" did. Success has a way of making people suspicious and edgy. (Plus, O'Connor is an amazing singer, and it was hard to deny how good the bald crooner sounded even when she was belting "Curly Locks.")

But all that noise about identity obscures one question: Is Matisyahu -- or "Youth" -- any good?

Well, no, not if he's judged as a straight-up reggae artist. But this is no Vanilla Ice, either.

While Matisyahu has an appealingly nimble way of speed rapping, his voice doesn't have the resonance and fire of Jamaican toasters -- which might point to another likely reason for Matisyahu-bashing: He comes out of the jam band scene. As a high school dropout, Miller followed Phish for almost half a year; now, as Matisyahu, his audience is made up of those pesky patchouli-soaked kids, not hard-core reggae fans.

But as a jam band icon, Matisyahu's just fine, and he's playing to a scene that doesn't mind reggae lite -- or somebody rapping in faux patois.

Bill Laswell produced "Youth," and he gives Matisyahu's stripped-down backing band -- guitar, bass and drums -- just enough studio treatments to thicken its sound without taking away from its strength: noodly reggae, a slightly stilted but still grooving sound that would likely get a hemp-skirted girl twirling but might leave a true child of Jah scratching his dreadlocks.

Matisyahu isn't trying to sell himself as the authentic sound, and in two sly asides he shows his suburban roots: On the bumping "Jerusalem" he injects the chorus from Matthew Wilder's trite, reggae-tinged 1983 hit "Break My Stride" in the middle of a plaintive ode to Judaism's most important city, and "Dispatch the Troops" features Matisyahu singing "sending out an SOS," a line from the Police. Pop-reggae has had no more popular group than the Police, and that's the lineage Matisyahu should be considered against, not roots artists like Bob Marley and Burning Spear.

"King Without a Crown," the 2005 hit that propelled Matisyahu out of the underground hippie scene and into buzz-band territory, makes yet another appearance on "Youth." The immediately catchy song, which achieves a perfect blend of rock and reggae, also appeared on his first two indie-label albums, but now that Sony has picked up Matisyahu the corporation isn't going to let a great song get away. Unfortunately, little of the rest of "Youth" matches up.

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