David Rudder

It usually smacks of pretentiousness for an artist to label their songs stories, but David Rudder can get away with it. His lyrics are always filled with vivid metaphors that can tilt literate or streetwise and extend beyond the soca/calypso (or any other) tradition norm. Just look at "Behind the Bridge" for a sterling example of his eye for pertinent, descriptive detail and brilliant turns of phrase: "Shaka died of natural causes this morning/In other words, he took five bullets in the tenement yard/They only recognized him because of his favorite Snoop Dogg T-shirt/The little brother didn't just dead, the little brother dead baaaad." That's great writing. He tackles the "Case of the Disappearing Panyards" to lament the loss of the steel drum bands in Trinidad over a nicely lilting groove with steel pan and horns, and blends literary musings on love with a plain and simple chorus on "Crossroads." "Crossing the Bridge (The Madman's Rant)" combines a reggae bassline with atmospheric synthesizer, and Rudder wails over the growing number of Trinidad youth winding up in the island's mortuary. If there's a shortcoming to Tales From a Strange Land (aside from the shortness of the CD -- only eight full-length songs plus a 70-second steel drum epilogue), it's in the music. Rudder has always taken liberties with standard calypso/soca forms -- the fanciful, Trinidad-specific "The Strange Tale of Madame Occohantas and the Westminster Dreadlocks" has a yodeled chorus, of all things. But things are a little too spare here, with a clanking drum machine, minimal bass, and the occasional bluesy sax solo dominating the wisps of melodic color in the arrangements. It's still a minor complaint about another solid effort from a major artist who deserves wider recognition outside the closed-off calypso/soca sphere. ~ Don Snowden, All Music Guide