Boris Boogaloo – Long Way Home (Floppy Records).

Boris Boogaloo makes a welcome return to the blues after the experimentations of his last album, Crazy Shadows. He opens with Brownie’s Blues, strangely enough a Brownie McGhee song, and he also takes on Sonny Terry’s role for good measure. His wispy vocals give the song an air of it being homemade and this feeling continues throughout the album. Muddy Waters classic Hootchie Cootchie Man (sic) is a well known and powerful blues but Boris turns in a less that powerful performance. Some people may think that this is weak but what we have here is the blues stripped bare. The title track is the first of five self-penned songs and is an acoustic blues with a world weary vocal. This shows an increased maturity in his songwriting and bodes well for the future. From there he goes on to turn in a very passable cover of Canned Heat’s World In A Jug.

Smilin’ Blues has that rare Boogaloo thing, a drum beat! This is electric, contemporary and urban although, on this occasion, Boris’s voice is a little weak for this style of song. This is the type of track that should be belted out. The chugging I Got A Feelin’ continues the vein of electric guitar and drums but it still needs that powerful voice and maybe a bit of distortion too. No Pain is the penultimate self-written song and it’s a return to the laconic acoustic style that is more suited to his vocal technique. The drums return on Driftin’ Blues, the last of his covers, and are joined by slide and grungy electric guitars. I hate to harp on about the voice but it just doesn’t suit these types of arrangement. It may have been better to tackle this acoustically but it is a fine song no matter what. There’s a full band set up again for the finale. She Knocks Me Out has Mr. Apple on drums, as he has on the others where drums have appeared, and signs that Boris’s vocal has managed to adjust to the electric style. All it needs is a little bit of grit.

Boris Boogaloo’s songwriting has come on in leaps and bounds and the improvement between this and his first album is quite marked.

www.floppyrecords.co.uk

Copyright David Blue 2006.