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Taken from EYE Weekly (Nov 05, 2008)
Michael Franti & Spearhead - All Rebel Rockers
by Alex Nino Gheciu
 After spending the past few years documenting the war-torn Middle East, Michael Franti & Spearhead have released an album that sounds as conflicted as the Sunni-Shiite divide. Despite Franti’s activist leanings, half the disc is tailored less for the picket line than for the dance floor. From the funky dancehall of “A Little Bit of Riddim” to the sultry bump n’ grind of “All I Want Is You,” this is the group’s most bounce-inducing effort to date, largely due to the dub-drenched production by Jamaican legends Sly & Robbie. A few songs fall prey to empty sloganeering, with lead single “Hey World (Remote Control Version)” spewing platitudes worthy of Black Eyed Peas. But elsewhere, Franti drops an onslaught of pointed insights, taking aim at the Babylon system in “The Future” and wartime surveillance policy in “Life in the City.”
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