After he'd been a fixture of the British new wave/punk/underground/alternative scene since the late '70s, 1994's
Take Me to God marked
Jah Wobble's first major commercial success as a solo artist, reaching number 13 in the U.K. The use of numerous guest musicians (including
Can drummer Jaki Leibezeit) gives this a feel of a rotating collective, with
Wobble (who plays several instruments here in addition to the one he's most known for, bass) the constant. Quite a few singers contribute, giving this more of a song-oriented feel than some of his other work, some of the more celebrated including
Gavin Friday,
Dolores O'Riordan of
the Cranberries, Senegalese vocalist
Baaba Maal, and top world music artist
Najma Akhtar. The 66-minute length of these sprawling excursions almost inevitably means the program will drag at times, according to your musical inclinations. Lyrically, too, it's so varied as to make it difficult to connect with a pronounced attitude or viewpoint, the concerns ranging from the almost indecipherably frivolous ("Yoga of the Nightclub") to the numerous references to God that pepper the song titles. But it's an interesting assortment of tracks combining currents flowing through mid-'90s alternative rock, world music, reggae, club beats, dub, and African pop, adding up to an extremely heterogeneous whole. ~ Richie Unterberger