CD Review

MATISYAHU

Once you get past the novelty of a Hasidic Jew in a flat black rabbinical hat, shiny dark slacks, geezer glasses and forelocks turning reggae on its dreadlocked head, you'll begin to realize that legendary connection between the Lost Tribes of Israel and the Rastafarians. Matisyahu combines humid reggae rhythms with a languid delivery and an Old Testament search for spirituality and meaning, all the while making it seem effortless and authentic, even when the music devolves into organic jam rock. For his third offering (but first major-label studio release) the singer and former Phish-head (born Matthew Miller) hired world-music avatar Bill Laswell to smoothly unite this mixed marriage on such weighty topics as freedom, redemption and the restoration of the promised land. The rapper-cum-lay-rabbi revisits some familiar thematic terrain from last year's "Live at Stubbs," even rerecording the anthemic and historic "King Without a Crown," with its near-heretical dismissal of the Rastafarian sacrament: "Me no want no sinsemilla/ That would only bring me down/ Turn away my brain no way my brain is to compound/ Torah food for my brain, let it rain till I drown." Songs like "Fire of Heaven/Altar of Earth" and "Indestructible" allow the listener to look into the rapper's bottomless soul, where he has lit an inspirational fire that conjures up the virtue and purity of young Jimmy Cliff. -- Jaan Uhelszki

MATISYAHU

YOUTH

SONY

$18.98