Buju Banton “Upside Down” Album Review Rundown

Iconic and veteran artist Buju Banton has dropped his first studio album in over 10 years, correct me if I’m wrong. I have listened a couple of songs but they didn’t grab my attention nor heart like earlier Buju Banton material like Voice of Ja and Till Shiloh. Might be me, maybe I’m just getting old.. So I went around looking on the internet for other people’s opinions. You can read them below, even Kartel fans had their opinions ready. Also below you will find a nice tidy Spotify playlist to judge for yourself..

Text continues below the Spotify playlist.

Facebook user (Actually a good in depth review of the entire album):
Boring intro compared to his 90`s albums, you can even hear ”Our Father in Zion” beeing played out. This will not!
”Yes mi friend” is an unnessesary remake of ”Duppy Conqueror”. Imagine playing this after Sizzlas ”No Other Like Jah” – no way!
”Buried Alive” is buried in electric guitars. Electric guitars and reggae fits works together worse than banana and Pizza.
”Blessed” is comparable to a large amount of Buju songs. But not close to ”Til It Bend” or ”Too Bad”.A huge problem with the playlist of this album is the absence of two artists – Beres Hammond and Wayne Wonder. Buju is the best combination artist ever!!! Those are the best to do combinations with. IMO ”Memories” works with John Legend as a stand in. ”Lovely state of mind”…zzzz….there is no way this guy has ever come close to what they accused him to smuggle….
”Appreciated” use the same riddim as Ganja Man. Is it Vanity? Not as good as ”Ganja Man” which is not as good as for example ”Bobby Reds”.
”Trust” is one of the best Cham tunes I´ve heard for a long time but Dave Kelly has not done a new riddim since Stage Show.
The song with Pharell – uurrkk! If its not Vybz Kartel – I dont wanna hear anyone using the words ”wine u body” anymore, ever!
”Beat Dem Bad” is hard to understand? Save us from tunes like ”Good time girl”!
”Call Me Girl” with Stefflon Don is way better than the one with Pharell. And a tune hat could find its way to the dancehall. ”Moonlight love” is based on the same soul song Heptones covered on ”Message from a black man”. Works ok. ”Cheated” is sampling the first combination (if I´m correct) ”Tom Drunk” (originally U-Roy & Hopeton Lewis) This works very well! ”Steppa” is already released but I dont know what I think of this tune?
”The world is changing” sounds like something different in a good way compared to that latino-inspired crap I already forgot about. ”400 years” is powerful and sounds a bit like his tune ”Sudan” exactly 20 years ago. ”Rising up” can very well be the best reggae tune on the album! ”Helping hand” with humble lyrics – still boring! ”Unity” sounds musically misplaced. The album is varied but not necessarily for the better.

Another Facebook user:
2 good songs so far. "Call me" and "cheated". But there's no Serani feature in it either.

Facebook user:
if thats all he can give us after all those years in jail waiting to release new material… well then he pretty washed up ennit?

Facebook user:
Great album!

Facebook User
🚀🚀🚀🚀 kartel a jail and still #1 today a sad day for all these so called "conscious fans"

Facebook User
A good producer or a professional producer team would have done the album good.
If I had celebrated as ep, I expect more from an album.

What do you think of Buju’s new album? Leave a comment..