Lee "Scratch" Perry — Heaven
Appearing at the tail end of 2023 Heaven was the final studio album from respected and influential reggae producer/ composer Lee "Scratch" Perry. The eight-track albums appears on Burning Sounds- available as either vinyl LP or CD, I’m reviewing the latter on these.
The CD comes presented in a mini card gatefold- with a close-up picture of of Mr Perry face, and his punked red-dyed beard. Inside we find the CD, and a glossy fold-out taking in linear notes on one side, and studio photos/ etc on the back. With the inlay spread showing Mr Perry's heavily ringed hands over an illustration of a tiger.
The album was recorded in 2021- shortly before Perry’s passing at the grand old age of eighty-five. And while it may not be as crazed, creative, or ahead of its time compared with some of his releases. It’s a good enough swan song- showing his cheeky flare and spirit were very much alive & well even in his mid-80s.
The album moves from tight organ jiving, urgent horn vamps, and wordless female ohs of “Good News” with Perry mentioning that he's the black Jesus in the track's lyrics. We have skuttling dub percussion breakdowns, organ strutting groove, and moody guitar tones of “Peace” where he rumbles about the height of the devil & of course Ganja among other things.
Moving into the album's second half & we have one of its highlights “Shining”. It finds a mid-paced groove spinning with horn sways, layered percussion detail, reverbed- at times drifting off female backing vocals, and space tone drift ‘n’ melt. With the album playing out with “Repented” with its distant/ faint almost industrial bashes, mellow/ moody guitar tones, and tip-tapping live drums added with extra electro-percussive detail.
As an album Heaven does start off maybe a little pedestrian- but hang in there as it is an album that gets better & better the deeper you go in. And after a few plays the safe/ less inspired early tracks make sense within the album's framework.