Beres Hammond – Love From A Distance

To call Beres Hammond 'The BabyFace of Reggae,' as VP Records has done in recent promotional materials, is to insult the songwriting ability of Beres. BabyFace may have a talent for churning out sappy love songs, but 'Face could only dream about having the insight and range of Reggae's Rolls Royce. Not since Gregory Issac's heyday has a singer been able to invest so much emotional gravity in a single moan.

But praising Beres the singer is quite different from praising Love From A Distance, the artist's latest offering. Despite a few truly brilliant Beres-type moments, Love From A Distance is running a poor third when compared to his last two VP Records releases. Love From A Distance, is on a par with In Control, his Elektra album, and it is certainly better than what most other singers could produce; but with Beres, one expects more.

Things get off to a promising start with "Much Have Been Said," a typically unorthodox Beres ballad. He's asking his girl to ignore all the talk and mounting evidence of his infidelity... I can hear rudeboys quoting this one to their lovers already. "Much Have Been Said" is a particularly ironic prelude to the absolutely gorgeous "Sweet Lies," where Beres examines lost love from the other side of the coin: You fell for one of those sweet lies/ the kind you doubt yet you wanna believe/ when your heart's not hearing/ what your brain is saying/ and you're weak at the knees.... the afore mentioned rudeboys might want to steer their girls past this track.

There is a lot of good music on Love From A Distance, as one would expect. The surprise lies in the number of substandard tracks on the disc. When an artist specializes in slow- to mid-tempo songs, as Beres does, it is important not to become boring. "All is Well," "Highlight of The Day," "Black Beauty" and "Take Time To Love" are all guilty of inducing boredom, if not revulsion. "Take Time.." in particular, is a disappointment. You know that the combined talents of Shaggy and Beres could come up with something better, but they hardly seem to try.

Also missing is some of the biting social commentary that has become a vital component of Hammond's artistic character. Beres devotes "What A Life," "Black Beauty" and "Sing Glory" to those who love his conscious side, but the tracks are generally innocuous and the lyrics clichéd. Not a "Putting Up A Resistance" in the bunch.

THE VERDICT: Fans of Beres Hammond will find plenty to love on Love From A Distance. There are at least six songs here that would have been comfortable on any of his other opuses. However, real fans will recognize the subpar filler as well. You'll have to use the fast forward button a few times here, and with Beres, that's not something you usually do.