Mortimer - From Within (Easy Star Records/Overstand Entertainment)

In the first category, we’d like to highlight the soulful ‘Balcony Swing’, ‘You And Me’ and ‘Slowly’.

With ‘Bruises’, an excellent collaboration with Kabaka Pyramid and Lila Iké, and opener ‘In My Time’ (a duet with Damian Marley), Mortimer delves into the traumatic experiences that black people have had to endure over the centuries. Mortimer on ‘Bruises’: “It speaks on the mistreatment we’ve had to endure as Black people especially, but also about the human condition and the emotional distress we all face regardless of race or status. We all bear scars, both seen and unseen; some spoken and others kept secret.”.

This seamlessly brings us to tracks like ‘Not A Day Goes By’ (“What if I told you not a day goes by, that I don’t cry because of all that’s going on inside my mind…”), ‘My Own Tears’ and ‘Whole Heap’, seeing Mortimer confront the darker, sometimes depressive thoughts he struggles with. The latter track seems to capture the spirit of the album perfectly, so we’d like to share the lyrics in full:

Whole heap a tings man go through
Man see through all dem lies as I close my eyes
Maturing as I go through
Still working on some things on the inside
There’s lesson in the struggle
This one’s just swinging by
Had to take my time
So many times I’ve stumbled
All of us can relate to some

If I could take it all away
Would I like who I am today
I won’t see what it’s all about
I’m just trying to work it out
If you wanna see brighter days
Then you got to do what it takes
Try to hold up a little tears
Til the day you conquer your fears

Aren’t we all dressed in white
After we’ve justified our wrongs
Proven we’re right
We choose to hide our pain
Struggle to gain restraint
Sometimes we hesitate

But if we could take it all away
Would we like who we are today
We won’t see what it’s all about
Yes, we’re just trying to work it out
If we wanna see brighter days
Then we got to do what it takes
Try to hold up a little tears
Til the day you conquer your fears

If I could take it all away
Would I like who I am today
We won’t see what it’s all about
We’re just trying to work it out
If we wanna see brighter days
Then we got to do what it takes
Try to hold up a little tears
Til the day you conquer your fears

The confessional track ‘Heavy’, a delightful reggae tune leaning towards lovers rock, with near operatic vocals in the choruses, certainly captured our imagination.

Mortimer closes with ‘Where Would I Be’, a superb ode to Rastafari and Haile Selassie, pulling out all the stops for a powerful disco-reggae finale, questioning aloud: “If Jah Rastafari never did call I, where would I be? And if Haile Selassie showed I no mercy, where would I be?”.

Once again in charge of production was Phillip ‘Winta’ James, who, alongside top talent from the contemporary Jamaican reggae scene (Lamont ‘Monty’ Savory and Ian ‘Beezy’ Coleman on guitar, Donald ‘Danny Bassie’ Dennis on bass, Devon Bradshaw and Wayne ‘C Sharp’ Clark on drums, Hector Lewis on percussion, Llamar ‘Riff Raff’ Brown on keys, and Tameka ‘Tammi’ Moncrieffe and Sherieta Lewis Rodney on backing vocals), delivered an eclectic palette where reggae, r&b, hints of 80s pop, and even disco find a place.

Purists might opt to sit this one out, but we thoroughly enjoyed this intimate gem!