Andrae “Popcaan” Sutherland has opened for the world’s biggest pop star, Drake, featured on recent Giggs and Gorillaz albums, and scheduled a huge UK arena tour this winter. This is because Sutherland’s voice is a remarkably expressive instrument for a reggae dancehall singjay, even when completely covered in Auto-Tune’s croaky digital cloak. Sadly, his second album is blander than supermarket jerk chicken, and its wistful, ruminative opener, Watch Who You Tell, promises depths that never surface.
Yes, lead single Wine for Me is irresistible, genius enough to be played alongside Turn Me On or Hold Yuh. Firm and Strong and Lef My Gun are also excellent, but so much of Forever is underpowered and deracinated pop, lacking the filth, grit and deadly sub-bass of his mentor Vybz Kartel. Great pop stars roam off the reservation and try to find beauty through lacerating honesty. Instead, Popcaan fences himself into a drearily obvious priapic cage, particularly on three-song nadir Naked, Foreign Love and Body So Good, where he conjures an ecstasy of fondling with all the allure of a sex pest on a crowded train.
