Demarco: ‘Melody’ Album Review
Demarco’s long-awaited debut album Melody is an agile collage of musical genres. Though it isn’t billed as a crossover album, it skillfully sweeps through new terrain while Demarco stays rooted in his old stomping grounds, Dancehall. Melody’s sixteen tracks feel like a nod to the sixteen years that have gone by since his breakout hit, 2005’s Fallen Soldiers.
Demarco has notoriously worn many hats – even before the bucket style on the album cover became his on-trend trademark. The versatile singer-songwriter/deejay/producer/director, who has a remarkable ear for instrumentals, produced some of Dancehall’s most infectious riddims (Stress Free, Shootout, Jambe An) throughout the aughts. Demarco handled production on all but four of Melody’s tracks and directed each of the music videos for the handful of pre-debut releases.
On Melody, the No Wahala singer weaves a range of rhythms – Dancehall, Reggaeton, Afrobeats, Roots Reggae – with other layers for an eclectic, sophisticated production. Owing to his genre-roving style, Demarco delivers 53 delightful minutes on his Ineffable Records debut.
The guest list includes Konshens, Queen of Dancehall Spice, crossover kings Shaggy and Sean Paul, scions of Reggae’s royal family, Stephen and Ky-Mani Marley, plus international stars Sarkodie and Bomberjak in an unpredictable yet unfalteringly authentic soundscape.
The album’s opener, My Way, is testament to this, a boasty, sound-system indebted ode to all things Dancehall. “Man ah top ranking…we stay hustling/Everyday we ah floss inna yaad like foreign/ Gyal inna barrage, keep dem coming in/ If a guy disrespect, di gun dem bussin’,” SP rhymes on the track. This prompt salute to the culture featuring one of its most lauded proponents is followed by a foray into Demarco’s other influences — flute-driven Dancehall/ urban fusion on the Konshens collab Mover, melodic scatting and saxophone on Afrobeat earworm, For You, and the Afrobeats-flavoured Ryda, underpinned by piano.
Another standout, Any Man featuring Spice is equal parts bass and electro-effects with a few of the Queen’s most revved-up bars. “Wait till mi wine on you…” she teases after each hardcore verse between Demarco’s convincing rap flows.
A run of songs halfway through the album offers a welcome cool down with tracks of the reggae/ one drop variety. Love, Stuck On You, All Mine and Dance My Stress Away are fitting refreshers on the genre’s roots from the virtuoso, each with an engaging vibe.
Fallen is Demarco’s take on Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me A River, a slowed-down kiss-off with a dramatic, stormy outro. Continuing in that somber vein is Travel Safe, a worthy reprise of his breakout tribute, Fallen Soldiers, featuring 6ixx prodigy Chronic Law.
There are of course the occasional missteps with such an ambitious project. Delayed for over a decade, the excess of features on Demarco’s debut, especially within the first three tracks felt like an overreach, reducing its singular impact. Tracks such as Stone Throw Away and In My Heart are enjoyable but skippable, where the focus on (potent) production undercuts the lyrical quality.
The swirl of songs on the closing stretch of the suite also feels out of sync with the sequencing. Homage, which taps two of Dancehall’s legends, Bounty Killer and Beenie Man, for their epic testimonies is shadowed by Demarco’s “look at me now” musings. “It was all a dream,” he starts off, invoking another Jamerican rhyme slinger, the late rapper, The Notorious B.I.G. Ironically, he and Biggie share another trait: their young daughters have famously inspired their music (on the rap classic Juicy, the track Demarco interpolates, B.I.G celebrates “Livin’ life without fear/ Puttin’ five karats in my baby girl’s ear.”)
Aside from being the common thread in his shapeshifting debut, Melody is also the name of Demarco’s youngest daughter (her image is featured as a reflection in his sunglasses on the cover art). With Melody, Demarco not only honors new beginnings but truly lives up to his album title.
Melody is an adventurous, commercially attuned display of Demarco’s ability to merge sounds. Also impressive is the album’s assembly, which balances out jarring transitions for the most part. The music pioneer fixes his gaze far beyond Billboard, seemingly aiming for the longevity enjoyed by most of his collaborators.
Melody also reflects the current moment in music, one with an eclectic consumer and marketplace — where Justin Beiber makes Afrobeats cameos and Shenseea shines among rap’s who’s who — where eclectic elements continually mesh in harmony.