Finley Quaye: Vanguard : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Finley Quaye's 1997 debut, Maverick a Strike, was such an ebullient blast of sunshine, such a signature reinvention of reggae, that it was well worth wondering if the young Scotsman (who either is or isn't Tricky's uncle, depending upon whom you ask) was the next Bob Marley. Nearly four years in coming, Quaye's follow-up album, Vanguard, has enough distinctively soulful moments to leave the door open on that question, but also enough lightweight material (it took him four years to rhyme "Susie" with "Jacuzzi"?) to leave you wondering if Quaye isn't as much a novelty as a visionary. Some tracks this time rock a little harder or deftly venture further into electronica, and nearly everything is buoyant and playfully constructed. But the album is half over before the yearning futuristic ska of "Feeling Blue" wrenches you into the better world Quaye constructed on Maverick a Strike. That, the reflective troubled-mind exploration "When I Burn Off Into the Distance" and the ominously roiling "Calendar" are potent enough to keep us wondering about Quaye for another four years. (JIM WASHBURN)