Snoop Lion

While the humanity and personal growth shown in Snoop Lion's Reincarnated documentary granted the legendary rapper some sympathetic cover for his dubious rebirth as a reggae-singing Rasta, the eponymous album at the heart of that story affords him no such luxury. The Diplo-directed record is a somewhat sloppy mish-mash of reggae cuts that rarely attain an authentic air, a couple of Rita Ora- and Miley Cyrus-assisted pop write-offs, and one bit of Major Lazer-lite, in the oddly-placed "Get Away." Snoop does best when he steers far clear of his weak attempts at Jamaican patois, and some of the album's better songs come when the rapper opens up his vocal cords for messages of love, positivity and redemption, as in the lover's rock-moulded "So Long" and reflective "Tired of Running." Those saving grace moments are in tough, however, against the abysmal "Fruit Juice" and poorly composed "No Guns Allowed," which, despite its commendable message, is just a bad song on a bad album, of which the track's hastily-delivered Drake verse is particularly emblematic.