Aswad: Distant Thunder

DEEP JOY is in my heart that Aswad have had a giant hit single, a corking little pop reggae soul tune of some upliftingness. However, Distant Thunder is by no means the album that should have gone with it. Aswad have made an LP that makes Maxi Priest look like Anthrax, a set of eminently laidback and unenthusiastic tunes which chug in and out of the ear like pretty coloured smoke. Token nods to their old funkiness exist in 'The Message' (which is not 'The Message') but the hardest track here, ludicrously, is 'Don't Turn Around'.