Album Review
Genre: Hip-Hop/Dancehall
Format: CD Album
Reviewer: Jonas Bæk
Added: Mon, Oct 5, 2009
T.O.K. ››
Our World
It's been a while since we heard a new album from T.O.K. - as they have primarily been focusing on solo careers and single hits, which have been numerous since the last album Unknown Language from 2005, which has significantly more edge and power than the newest album Our World which was released about a month ago on VP Records.
Our World is a collection of 16 more or less club-bangers-alike tracks, whereof most of them can't even be called Dancehall but a rather close clone of pop/hip-hop/dance tracks heard from the likes of Rihanna and the vast amount of New Yorker bling-artists hitting the charts on the States. And that is probably the purpose of Our World as well, to simply find other markets to sell Reggae and Dancehall.
The new album from T.O.K. simply lacks two very important factors when coming to a Dancehall album. The first this is indeed Dancehall. Yes you do get distinct hip-hop flavored Jamaican produced tracks on the album - but hardly any of them fits into the category called Dancehall. I mean you have an awesome soca track Couple Up, a fantastic produced Reggae track Guardian Angel (on the smash hit riddim of the same name) and extremely well produced Tony CD Kelly track, Me And My Dawgs - but that simply covers the interesting tracks on the album.
The second thing the album lacks is the goal or purpose of Our World - because, what is the purpose? I can't quite figure out why releasing an album with the band, when it lacks massive tunes like Rise Di Gun Finger and No Man (on the Don Corleons Silver Screen riddim) - even the acoustic version of Guardian Angel deserves a spot on the album - as you really can hear the fine voices and harmonies of T.O.K. The purpose of this album is way too unclear for me.
Bottomline, Our World is an album trying to fit to the US market, with no regards to the original T.O.K. Dancehall fans. I don't know how well it will sell in the US, but I have a hard time believing it to be a hit on the small, but very critical Reggae market in Europe. I'm not sure the combination with Beenie Man (Miss World) can even change that.
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