Consumer Guide Album

Buju Banton: Inna Heights [VP, 1997]
This starts out in the heights of "Hills and Valleys," an affirmation of Rasta community which adds to the deep soul of "'Til Shiloh" a melody that is hope itself. After that shoo-in for the reggae canon, the album can only descend, and while Banton's voice remains the essence of dancehall and the tracks are well-conceived--strong rhythms, welcome guests, thought-through principles, the nice touch of "Small Axe"--it soon appears that PolyGram 86ed the flagship act of banished troublemaker Lisa Cortes on practical grounds: by pop standards the vehicle seems high-generic. But the last five songs suggest that spite was at work. Suddenly the music zooms upward from its pleasant plateau, spooky bouncing bass and twisty guitar stile and intense Toots remake with the man himself chanting "I say yeah" and "54-46" like prison was yesterday, all culminating in the voice-only social-determinism tract "Circumstances," a heartening bit of analysis from a man who 45 minutes earlier was claiming his "Destiny" far less convincingly. A-