OSIBIROCK

To begin with, this release is a bit of a disappointment when compared to Osibisas earlier albums. It's at least a more uneven affair than before. The second side reaches the standards of their two first albums Osibisa and Woyaya.

The first side is quite bad though. The first track "Who's Got the Paper" sounds like an easy caribbean dance song or a song for kids. "Why" is slightly better, the first part is a slower one while the second part gets wilder. The title track is a weak one too, not much better than the first track. "Kelele" then, is a live recording. It's some kind of a call-and-respond song, luckily with the rhytms whish are mostly what I like with Osibisa. Best so far. The last track on side one, "Atinga Bells", is an instrumental. It would have been the best track of side one if it was longer than mere seconds.

Call me conservative but the sound of the second side (and earlier albums) is what I like with Osibisa, and belive justifies their inclusion on this site anyway, african Jazz Rock. All tracks on this side are better than any of the ones on the first. "African Jive" is frenzy, "We Belong" a little slower and "Komfo (High Priest)" even slower, until the end that is, where it gets wilder. "Kangaroo" has the tempo and a latino touch while "Home Affairs" is similar in style to "African Jive".

The album is packaged in a sleeve with art not by Roger Dean this time, but an older painting by Henri Rousseau. As good and with the same mood as the two by Dean.