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ALTERNATIVE/HIP-HOP
Michael Franti and
Spearhead, "Yell Fire!" (Anti-) **
In the summer of 2004,
the prolific Bay Area musician Michael Franti packed up his guitar and a
video camera and made a one-man journey to the Middle East, stopping in
Baghdad, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The results are a new
documentary, "I Know I'm Not Alone"; an accompanying book with the same
title, and "Yell Fire!," the fifth studio album by his band, Spearhead.
Through all of his
musical guises -- the Beatnigs, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and
Spearhead -- Franti has steadfastly avoided labels, including the nebulous
"alternative rap," and aggressively jumped from genre to genre while
maintaining the common thread of an outspoken devotion to pacifism and
Leftist politics, whether he's taking on American Imperialism or criticizing
hip-hop for its misogyny. "Yell Fire!" cheerfully mixes reggae (the disc was
partly recorded in Kingston with guest rhythm section Sly and Robbie), rap,
soul and uninspired, U2-like arena rock (on the dreadful, bombastic ballads
"I Know I'm Not Alone" and "See You in the Light"), while the lyrics convey
Franti's take on the human suffering of war. The problem is that neither the
sounds nor the words are as sophisticated as the complicated themes deserve.
The documentary "I Know
I'm Not Alone" is revelatory because Franti introduces us to real people who
are the unseen victims of the conflict. But even the exceedingly
jam-band-friendly reggae tunes that are the most successful tracks here
musically sink under the weight of oh-so-obvious lyrical observations such
as, "Those who start wars never fight them / And those who fight wars
never like them" (from the opening "Time to Go Home") and "This one's
nothing like Vietnam / Except for the bullets / Except for the bombs /
Except for the youth that's gone" ("Light Up Ya Lighter"). There's
plenty to protest in 2006, but surely there's more to say than that.
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