Artiste: Alpha Rowen
Album: Earth Cries
Label: Ancient Mystic Music
One Star.
AFTER LISTENING TO Alpha Rowen's album, Earth Cries, the only resounding question is "How did he know that's what we'd do?"
His album cover heralds the oddness that is to come. There is a satellite on the outside of Earth; planes dropping bombs; soldiers fighting. And there is a picture of Rowen lifting his hands toward the sky, almost prayer-like. Then of course, there is, what we are supposed to guess to be his name in Arabic, Japanese and English.
It's hard to imagine things getting even more bizarre. But the songs and track order prove that it can.
The first track, My Potion, is a, ... um, love song. Rowen sings about a lost love whom he misses and wants to give his 'love potion', whatever that is. But you can't help but look back at the cover and the track listings where songs like, Demons, The Burning Hell, Ancient Spirits and Fighting 4 My Mind are back-to-back then go back to listening and start feeling queasy.
After the love song I See Them takes us back to Rowen's reality: I and I see them/ I know they're there/ Evilous mankind working for the devil.
In The Preasure the first thing that jumps at you is the spelling - or lack thereof. Secondly, how much more of this talk of the evil Rowen faces can we take?
As if that wasn't enough, in Mother Earth Cries we again hear of the 'wicked system' and the 'evil pressure' or 'preasure' according to Rowen.
After The Glory, the 11th track, comes Fabulous Girls - imagine that. The song Fabulous Girls is a bad sample of the Isley Brothers Rock Around the Clock.
The song Demons proves to be even more of an eyebrow raiser. In it's upbeat Celtic rhythm the words go: "Demons, demons, demons, demons, demons, demons, there are demons, casting evil spells ... The man who wears this title is the Pope of Rome." Enough said.
While the rhythms and background music are good and would have been better to listen to than the actual songs, one suffers through a man's almost zany ideology in the form of song which turns something that had the potential to be a hit into something that's too much of a task to lsiten to.
Track List:
1. My Potion
2. I See Them
3. The Preasure
4. Mother Eatrh Cries
5. No Rose Garden
6. More Criminals
7. Tell Me Teacher
8. Africa's Calling
9. Jah Live
10. What Can I Do Lord
11. The Glory
12. Fabulous Girls
13. Demons
14. The Burning Hell
15. Ancient Spirits
16. Fighting 4 My Mind
Kavelle Anglin-Christie
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