BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FORMER Road March Champs Nu Vybes Band, a.k.a. the Sugar Band, released their 2009-2010 Carnival album ‘KrossRoads’ at Ma Pau last Friday (Nov. 13) and it generated mixed reactions from their fans.
Some said they were pleased with the album while others said it was the worst the band has ever released since it expereinced a major spilt in 2006 when half of its members left and formed a new band.
The album was also said to be dedicated to the late Analdo ‘Al’ Williams, one of the founding members of the band who suddenly passed away earlier this year.
Nu Vybes was highly praised for being the first band from the Federation to release their Carnival album.
A surprisingly small turnout of fans was present at Ma Pau, as the tracks were released and introduced one after the other by Sweet Sister Sensia and Julie Charles respectively.
However, the crowd grew to capacity and possibly over the limit in attendance around the time the band started performing.
The album is filled with a variety of music including a few sampled music on some of their songs.
The first track to be released for the night was ‘Best Friend’, which is indicative of the talents of lead vocalist Gregory ‘Mr. Mention’ Hobson.
The track is a reggae version, which follows a number of great reggae tracks that have been released by the band in the past and sung by Hobson. Some of those tracks include ‘Mama’, ‘Stand Firm’ and last year’s ‘Underworld’.
Being a predominantly Soca band, Nu Vybes comes with a number of ‘wilders’ for the people to gyrate during this Carnival season.
The ‘wilders include ‘Can’t Get We Out’, ‘Apple Bottom Gyal’, ‘Let’s Fly’ and ‘Want it Bad’. There are also ‘Rock it Up’ and ‘Booty Call’, which are both adapted melodies and are also chants that were previously released.
Those two songs can be the contenders for Road March and they also got the most reaction from the listening crowd.
Something about the tempo and the chanting of ‘rock it up’ during the hook makes one wants to ‘mash’ up the place. Come Carnival Day and J’Ouvert the place will definitely be in frenzy.
The songs on the album were produced by keyboardist Daron Thomas and Jazzique Chiverton of Ball A Karn Productions with assistance from Hobson.
The album also features two groovy Socas in ‘Don’t Dance’ and ‘Supermodel’, which are co-written by Chiverton and Hobson. However, they cannot be compared with the band’s past hit ‘Crazy Love’, which has a more melodious sound and better lyrics.
Finally, ‘Walkie Talkie’, which is geared towards persons who allegedly walk and talk about other people’s business.
Speaking with the Manager of the band, David ‘Junie’ Adams, he said that he felt great about the album which offers a variety of tracks and are geared towards the international market.
“The launch of the album is the start of Carnival,” he said. “And everyone always looks forward to our album and we set the trend this year by releasing a month early.”
Adams said that they are not too concerned about winning the Road March as they are more focused on pleasing their fans. Adams further said that they plan to finish production for ‘Video Light’ which was off their 2008 album ‘Breakthrough’.
He also mentioned that they were looking at producing a video for ‘Apple Bottom Gyal’. Overall, the album was a good effort by the band which had experienced a number of problems during the year.
Two members who they started the year with the band are no longer with them and everyone knows that great music comes from great chemistry among the people who are working together.
Following the band’s launch, the members journeyed to Virgin Gorda to perform and are expected to play for a gig in St. Croix around Thanksgiving Weekend.
