Matisyahu’s “New” Album

I’ve been hearing that Matisyahu was coming out with a new album for quite some time. After the great success of Youth, Matis is trying to keep the momentum going and he released this seven-song album that also features a video footage of one of his concerts.

The cover artwork is superb, it looks very futuristic and original, and in my opinion it’s far better than the artwork of Youth (which was somewhat boring and simplistic). Good artwork usually lifts my expectations about what’s inside the album, but I was disappointed with the music. There is sticker in the album’s cover saying that this album features seven”brand new songs”, but this claim is misleading. In real terms, there are NO new songs; all the songs are remakes of Matisyahu’s most popular songs. “Message In The Bottle” is originally sung by The Police and, although it’s a great rock song with some reggae moments, it’s not a new song. Additionally, there are two remakes of “Jerusalem” and the latter one sounds very weird – it’s a terribly slow version of Matisyahu’s song. In other words, almost 30% of the music in this album is alternative versions of Jerusalem. Give me a break.

And there’s a remake of “Warrior”, but this song was also in Matisyahu’s first and second album (“Live at Stubb’s”) and to reintroduce it again it’s a stretch. I think it’s unacceptable to have one song, which is by the way not so great, in three out of four albums of Matisyahu.

A point can be made that this CD is much more about the video footage, showing Matisyahu performance at stage. If that’s the case, I don’t think this should be considered Matisyahu’s fourth album. It’s just a video of his live concerts.