Mikey Spice – Are You Ready – Review
Mikey Spice: Are You Ready Album Review – Steve Topple for Pauzeradio.com.
Reggae veteran Mikey Spice has been in the business around 35 years. But the legendary artist shows no signs of letting up, as he’s recently released yet another album. As it’s just so… ‘him’.
Are You Ready, released via Pro Production Entertainment, is a deep dive into nostalgic Soul-based Reggae. The production is of a high quality, allowing the musical intricacies and Spice’s voice to take the fore. And both these elements, along with the composition, are thoroughly enjoyable.
Mikey Spice Are You Ready opens with Everybody Needs Love. The track is the perfect introduction to the rest of the record, because it’s heavy on the Soul, light on the Reggae. The latter is represented by a bubble rhythm on the keys; a high treble clef melodica also gets involved, riffing on occasion and there’s a distinct whiff of a one drop, with the kick focusing on the upbeats. But the Reggae influences end there, as Spice showers us with Soul.
The drums are more syncopated that a traditional one drop, riffing heavily at the end of each bar. The pacey bass works off the root of the chord. For the chorus, it uses a two-bar riff, dropping the first upbeat on the second bar of the phrase. But throughout the rest of Everybody Needs Love it’s more centred around harmonic syncopation, fitting more with the Soul sensibilities. Electric guitars are pure Isley Brothers, whining with all the promise of summer. Horns cannot make up their minds if they want to be Funky or ‘Ska-y’, offering a response to the main vocal’s call.
The backing arrangement is very Soul – full of Doo Wop vowel sounds, straight then multi-layered accompaniment to the main melody but also some call and response. Interestingly, the arrangement bucks the current trend of just having all-female backing lines, again taking Everybody Needs Love back to an earlier time. And Spice is, of course, on top form – setting out his strong vocal stall for the rest of the album. It’s a confident start, and encapsulates much of the rest of the album.
Your Man is one of the more curious tracks on the album, taking Spice into the realms of Country Music. Yes, there’s a bubble rhythm and one drop. But the electric guitars are pure Country, employing a constant slide technique, where the finger moves in the space between semitones. The melody is classic of the genre as well. The chorus is the perfect example, starting of on the root note just before the first full bar kicks in, then working up to its octave higher counterpart but across the major sixth chord. And Spice’s voice is well suited to the genre, equally at home in a rich low baritone as it is in a middle tenor. Reggae and Country? It shouldn’t work. But curiously it does.
Next up, and A Woman Needs Love is firmly in the Lover’s Rock category, with its syncopated bass at times mimicking the main vocal line (in place of the electric guitar). The addition of a sax running a response melody is welcome, as is a Hammond-esque organ. Again, the vocals draw inspiration from Soul, and the whole package is a smooth throwback to that blissed-out vibe Spice has done so well over the years.
Ali Ali Oh moves Are You Ready into more of a Roots dimension, with an overly conscious message not seen on previous tracks. The keys do a proper bubble rhythm, syncopating on top of the standard offbeat chords. A melodica is back; the embellished one drop drives the track forward, and the bass is pure Rocksteady, syncopating left, right and centre. Meanwhile, the Ska horns are heavily featured: doing a response at the end of every second bar phrase of the verse. But during the chorus they come into their own, dropping the first beat of the bar, then doing heavily beamed melodic runs. The backing vocals still draw inspiration from Soul. But the message is pure Roots: have faith in Jah, despite what life throws at you. And this, coupled with the classy arrangement makes Ali Ali Oh one of the stronger tracks of Are You Ready.
The title track is also in the vein of Ali Ali Oh: heavily spiritual, decidedly Roots but with more of a Gospel focus than the previous track. The backing vocals do clipped, one word calls at the start of each bar of the verses, then become layered across the bridges. On both tracks, what’s particularly pleasant is the interspersing of minor chords in with the major ones. This adds to the ‘Song of Praise’ feel of both cuts. The addition of some Dub reverb on Are You Ready also adds a nice touch.
For The Good Times has distinct overtones of Soul and Gospel amid the Reggae sensibilities: the prominent Hammond organ being paramount to this. Again, major/minor chords feature and strings are also introduced. But For The Good Times is different to previous Soul-Reggae cuts on the album. The composition of the melody – strung out, with space to breath and the major-minor juxtapositions of the chords versus the vocal line – harks back to that 70s Soul/RnB style, perhaps encapsulated best by the likes of Dorothy Moore. There’s something about Spice’s delivery, as well, which makes this another standout cut. His ability to deliver rousing Soul performances is still something to behold; not least the deftness at which he moves between semitones on the minor riffs over the major chords. It’s pure class, at points goosebumb-inducingly so.
Meanwhile, I Want You is that Soul-based Reggae sound back again, albeit a lot funkier and rhythmically intricate than previous cuts and in a predominantly minor key. It’s All Over continues this trend, although the stripped back orchestration (bar the riffing sax) changes the mood somewhat. Then, Let Me Down Easy finishes this trio of Soul-based Reggae cuts, but it’s more stripped back again, and leans more to Reggae than Soul in the arrangement.
We’re back into Roots with Never Get Me Down. The production is different to Ali Ali Oh, insomuch that the bass’s dB is turned up, and a slap technique added to creating a rasping sound – making it the focus (as is more traditional). The introduction of a synth plus some heavy reverb all add to the Roots vibe. But you still cannot get away from Spice’s love for Soul and Gospel. New Day then continues on the conscious vibe, with a narrative about how society, and the world, needs to change for the better if we’re ever going to properly progress. But the cut is less Roots and more Soul, again – which makes the powerful narrative all the more striking.
The penultimate track, Smiling Face, is perhaps the album’s sum of its parts: Reggae devices coupled with Soul influences, arrangements and that 70’s vibe again. The backing vocal line is particularly complex, and it works well with the horns, melodica and Hammond organ.
Mikey Spice Are You Ready concludes with Zion. And teasingly from Spice it’s the only track that deviates from the Soul/Reggae mantra that dominates the album. He’s chosen to delve into more traditional Afrobeats territory – a fascinating move, given the thrust of the rest of the album. It’s an intelligently written and produced cut – not using the current Afrobeats obsession with synths and an on-beat-driven bass, but opting for something more authentic. The use of djembe and vibraslap are marked, giving direct credit to the Motherland. The rest of the percussion is stuttery, focusing on the offbeats while the horns are stretched out in almost regal fashion. The backing vocals are very traditional African in their arrangement. And Spice’s clear passion for both the message and the music is clear. It’s a surprise cut given the rest of the album – and shows the potential he has to expand from just the Reggae/Soul genres.
That’s not to say Zion is his finest vocal performance. Because on that, it would be difficult to select one track in particular. Spice has lost none of his unique ability over the years, and Mikey Spice Are You Ready demonstrates he is still one of the more skilled vocalists to ever come out of the Reggae movement. His range is as impressive as ever – managing with ease to transcend a low baritone to a falsetto, and every tone and semitone in between. His enunciation is perfect; his vocal runs smooth yet intricate; vibrato controlled and expressive and use of phrasing to accentuate the lyrics top-drawer. He really is a quality singer, and the album showcases his talent extremely well.
Are You Ready is a competent release from the ever-dependable Spice. OK, so it doesn’t set any records for musical ingenuity or groundbreaking approaches to experimenting with the genre. But that doesn’t really matter. Spice has created a thoroughly enjoyable project: pleasant on the ear, detailed enough to maintain interest and a well-rounded vehicle for his still-impressive voice. And sometimes, a solid record that sticks with what you expect from an artist is all you need. Highly pleasing. Mikey Spice Are You Ready review by Steve Topple (6th April 2020).
