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Taken from The Albuquerque Tribune (June 29, 2007)
CD review: Michael Franti & Spearhead
Michael Franti and Spearhead, "Yell Fire!" (Boo Boo Wax/Anti-)
by Paul Maldonado (Contact)
 The San Francisco activist and his four-piece combo come out blasting on their fourth full-length release. This is reggae-rock-punk-funk-hip-hop agitprop that's sublimely uplifting and ultimately hopeful.
The anti-war "Time to Go Home" opens the disc: "Those who start wars never fight them; those who fight wars never like them." But you'd be hard-pressed not to groove to the reggae-rock riddims, courtesy of Jamaican legends Sly Dunbar on drums, Robbie Shakespeare on bass and Uzziah "Sticky" Thompson on percussion. Those riddims rise again on the anti-anti-immigration stomper "Hello Bonjour" and "Light Up Ya Lighter," with the line: "The war for oil is a war for the beast; the war on terror is a war on peace."
There's a rough-hewn, lived-in quality to Franti's voice, especially when it teeters on the verge of spoken word ("See You in the Light" and the anthemic "I Know I'm Not Alone").
The title track is a syncopated rocker about revolution with rap rhymes, while "Hey Now Now" is a flat-out reggae party. Franti and Co. show a different side with "Sweet Little Lies," a mellow country rocker; the reggae heartache ballad "One Step Closer to You"; the psychedelic funk of "What I've Seen"; and the multi-culti soul and funky R&B of "Everybody Ona Move."
The disc ends with the sanguine "Is Love Enough?" where he asks: "What language are your fears? What language are your tears?"
This is a thinking person's socio-political screed — it's body-moving and booty-shaking while also being thought-provoking.
Franti was inspired to write the songs on "Yell Fire!" during a visit to war-torn neighborhoods in Baghdad, the West Bank and Gaza Strip a few years ago. The firebrand is quoted as saying of the trip: "The thing that I found when I was in war zones was that nobody wants to hear songs about war. They want to hear songs about connection to people, and songs about love and life, songs that make them dance."
The DVD "I Know I'm Not Alone" (Stay Human Films/Anti-) documents his journey. Armed with his guitar and a video camera, Franti offers an unflinching look at the everyday human cost of war, the stuff you don't see on the 10 o'clock news. On his directorial debut, Franti walks the talk; this wasn't some USO-sponsored tour of the Green Zone.
During his emotional voyage, Franti plays for children in hospitals and off-duty soldiers in Baghdad bars, and sometimes gets caught in the middle of a firefight.
However, from this pit of dark despair and unfathomable sadness, an exhilarating hopefulness emerges, and Franti is a true inspiration.
Michael Franti and Spearhead headline the Taos Solar Music Festival on Sunday. He and cohorts are scheduled to perform at 6 p.m. All ages. $45. Tickets available at Encore Music, 5314 Menaul Blvd. N.E., 888-0722, and La Parada Mercantile, 8917 Fourth St. N.W., 897-8203 in Albuquerque. Find more informatin at Solar Music Festival.
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