Born Dead With Life

Greg Rose, who records under the humble moniker Perfect, hails from Jamaica but has made his second album for the Austrian label Irie Vibrations. The music is an interesting blend of elements and styles — acoustic folk-rock, heavyweight roots reggae, dancehall, hip-hop. The lyrics are a more typical mix: militant Afrocentrism and anti-Babylonian tirades rub shoulders with more positive messages of social uplift and spiritual devotion. In terms of song quality, the album is something of a mixed bag: "This City" is built on an attractive one-beat rhythm with prominent clavinet, but somehow it never quite gets off the ground; "30 Pieces" is a rather pedestrian call for slavery reparations; and "Smile," a duet with the sweet-voiced Empress, wanders around aimlessly but does so quite prettily. On the other hand, "Journey" is a brilliant and almost funky combination track with Chezidek, and "Rasta Dubplate" brings (as its title would suggest) a dubwise feeling to the proceedings with overdubbed layers of vocals and a minimalist one-drop beat. There's even a ska track, the galloping "Unlock." The album's weakest entry is the title track, which is badly sung and feels half-written. Not bad overall, but not essential.