Album Review: Soja - Strength To Survive

Soldiers Of Jah Army, or SOJA as they're more widely known, have an impressive catalogue for their decade-and-a-half long time together. Formed out of a high school brotherhood, these Northern Virginia Rude Boys have set about writing sentient, pro-active reggae and dub tunes and changing the world they live in. Their latest effort, Strength To Survive, seems to be a bit of a change in musical direction.

In comparison to their previous material, Strength To Survive is not the strongest point in SOJA's repertoire. There will always be a place for this album in Reggae music, but this highly-polished, well produced album falls behind old favourites like Get Wiser and even their previous release, Born In Babylon.  This group has clearly stamped out a name for themselves and an indicative sound that they can go by, and their writing and professional musicianship is unquestionably good. However, in being so pristine, the record loses some of the charm that is inherent to Reggae. Gone are the days when it's acceptable for a more successful act to huddle around one microphone in a bucket, and play through their entire album, but if you can practically hear a sheen over the top of the record, things might have gone a bit too far.

Despite this setback, Strength To Survive is a very decent album. Not to produce lacklustre material, SOJA still pushes through the technicalities to deliver another album to inspire, stir your soul and groove along to.