Friendlyness and the Human Rights

Positive vibrations are the order of the day on this hard-hitting reggae disc. With the lion-mane sporting Friendlyness chanting goodness over punchy riddims, One Thing will surely lead to another: international acclaim. "One More Draw" has the makings of a runaway hit. It's catchy, sure, but as Friendlyness waxes poetic about Jah's works it becomes clear this Toronto, ON deejay can ride a riddim with the best of them. On "Do You See (What I See)?," he borrows a Christmas carol and reworks it into an "Ismas" carol to Jah (Jacob Miller would be proud!). "Human Rights" uses one of reggae's maximum dread riddims (and my personal favourite), "Truths and Rights," to maximum effect and "Ganjaman" dips into the mighty Soul Vendors catalogue for a backing track as smooth as Friendlyness's lyrical flow. The riddims are tuff and ready all around, something that evidently comes easy with players like Bernie Pitters (keys), Isax (sax) and Eric Woolston (drums). Now, if we could just do something about that annoying vocal pitch shifting on "I Want Her."