REVIEW: Finley Quaye, Maverick A Strike (550 Music)
- Lang Whitaker
Being a lesser-known relative in a well-known family can be murderous (LaToya Jackson, we hardly knew ya), but with Maverick A Strike under his belt, Finley Quaye shouldn't have any problems marking his own territory. The family Quaye was born into has a pedigree talented enough to shame even the Osmond Family. Consider: Quaye's father is a jazz composer, his brother is a musician who's played with everyone from Hall and Oates to Elton John, and oh yeah, he has this nephew named Tricky who does this little electronic thing. On this, Quaye's debut album, Finley has crafted a sound textured and rich enough to make people fall in love all over the world.
The term his label has settled on to describe Maverick A Strike is "post trip-hop". That's just fine with Quaye, who rationalizes, "...it sounds very much like it's got a lot to do with the 60s & 70s reggae era. A rasta at its height is coverage, total coverage. Eclectic, Coverage before you come up with anything to say, before you come up with any aptitude. Before you come with any couthness or right-on or appropriateness, you've got to check the coverage."
Consider the coverage checked. In fact, the coverage is checked hard enough that if this was hockey, Quaye would probably draw a game misconduct penalty.
The first single off of the album is the glorious "Sunday Shining", a song which features shared writing credits from the 23-year-old Finley and reggae legend Bob Marley. Quaye combines a ringing Oasis-like guitar with the reggae vocal style of Marley and a drumbeat that propels everything along. It's quite an amazing and beautiful sound.
Almost every song on Maverick A Strike is uplifting and redemptive. Love runs deep on this CD. I guess nephew Tricky got all the bad vibes in the family. Quaye serenades a lover on "Even After All", which has a "Walk on the Wild Side" groove to it. Over a humming guitar, Quaye proclaims "Them eyes are gorgeous girl/ No demise I prize/ I got to raise it again/ Them eyes are gorgeous/ I must advance." His unique singing/rapping style is so herky jerky that you almost need a chiropractor. However, what he does vocally fits perfectly with the music, and that is what is so beautful about these songs.
"It's Great When We're Together" blends an entire string section with a gospel organ to make a song that sounds like it was written for Al Green. "Ride On and Turn The People On" is a rap song that tastes like Lenny Kravitz with a slight aftertaste of War. The title track, "Maverick A Strike" is straight reggae, a story of the return of the narrator to ease his lover's pain.
Something else odd and probably worth mentioning is the fact that this album was co-produced by Quaye and Kevin Bacon. I don't know if it's "Quicksilver"/"Footloose" Kevin Bacon or not, but either way this makes Quaye much easier to link the next time you're playing "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon".
This is the kind of record that will drive product managers at Blockbuster Music stores all over the world totally nuts. While most music mega-stores will probably end up classifying this as a reggae record, don't judge the book by the Dewey Decmial system number it gets assigned. Get it, put it in, and turn it up. Way up.
