Michael Franti: Everyone Deserves Music : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Michael Franti is a bit late to the Gulf War II protest party. But what the Spearhead leader misses in timing, he makes up for in attitude and soul, infusing the dozen tracks on his band's fourth album with a joyous celebration of life that pulverizes bullets with positive vibes. "We can bomb the world to pieces/but we can't bomb it into peace," Franti sings on "Bomb the World," a post-apocalyptic nursery rhyme that picks up where Bob Marley left off, preaching peace and uplift via righteous party music and love. (In a delicious irony, Franti and his band faced scrutiny from the FBI over the song's lyrics.) Lashing the street poetry of Gil Scott-Heron and the soulful bounce of Marvin Gaye to a heavy dose of sunshiny, hippie sentiment, the album's vibe is summed up by the title song's egalitarian chorus, "Even our worst enemies . . . deserve music."

GIL KAUFMAN
(August 4, 2003)