Review of Big Up by Aswad
Artist: Aswad
Album title: Big Up
Release year: 1997
Label: Mesa / Bluemoon / Atlantic
Genre: Reggae
Rating: 6 out of 10

Track listing:
Lay This on You
Babe
Runaway
One Shot Chiller
Hurry Love
What I Know
Without You
If I Was
Push
Rock Solid
Danger in Your Eyes
Roxanne
Ring It

Review: One of the first British bands to popularize the the rhythms of Jamaica in Europe, Aswad continues to draw on its roots influence and expand its sound on BIG UP with dancehall rhythms and rich vocal harmonies. On several tracks it's easy to think you're hearing a dancehall remix of the Beach Boys or the Beatles (they even quote the fab four in Hurry Love.) While Without You and Danger In Your Eyes have a more traditional reggae feel, both rhythmically and lyrically, One Shot Chiller is tailor-made for the dance floor. The band even enters Barry White territory on Push. Rock Solid is based on a New Jack R&B rhythm, complete with scratching. And if you need further proof of the evolutionary steps that reggae has gone through in the past thirty years, look no further than their cover of the Police's (a band they performed with often) Roxanne--a black British reggae band covering a white British New Wave band appropriating a traditional Jamaican style.