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Malachai
Ugly Side Of Love
Domino
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Links:

Malachai on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/malachaibristol
Domino Records: http://www.dominorecordco.com/
Purchase from IndieRocket: http://indierocket.net/Bundles/view/ffd6203e-fa21-49a6-8f06-095395fb272b

Every so often when I am browsing through a record store, I will purchase an album solely for its cover art. Mesmerized by Ambrosia’s rainbow prism construct, I bought Somewhere I Never Traveled. I picked up Ozzy’s Speak Of The Devil strictly for its double gatefold awesomeness even though it contains live versions of old Black Sabbath tunes. And the same goes for Malachai’s Ugly Side Of Love.

It’s not that the cover art to this album is spectacular. It’s the subtlety that really pulls you in and has you staring for a while. I enlarged the image just to look for all of its mysterious features. The cover I am speaking of — there are two as far as I can tell — has smoke wafting in front of what looks like a wooden doll that looks like a form of a leprechaun crossed with The Mad Hatter with rainbow eyes. But look closer and it’s actually the singer Gee.

The cover is as hypnotic as their smokey dub beats and Phil Specter-like big beat. “Lay Down, Stay Down” and “Fading World” will make you feel as if the Vietnam War never ended while something like “Meech’s Theme” takes that dose of ‘70s soul and warps into a drugged-out state. The homage to the movie The Warriors on the song of the same title, and “Fading World” pulls a degree of voodoo and spins ‘60s pop and rasta into a spiraling effect as if you have traveled in time. The only problem is that the time continuum has a rift in it and subtle off key antics turn the normal into the abnormal.

It’s the little things that give pop of yor actuality and meaning to the genre besides “Free love, man!”  The Ugly Side of Love is purely reactionary.

 Malachai - Fading World (from the album "The Ugly Side Of Love"): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download