Review: All People

All People

All People is the new album from multi-genre man Michael Franti and his band Spearhead.

The great thing about a Michael Franti album is that you never know exactly what to expect going in. In the past, Franti has made music with reggae sounds, hip-hop sounds, jazzy stuff. With 'All People', the larger focus is making happy music. He does this using many different instruments and no two songs have exactly the same sound as a result. The amazing thing about 'All People' is that it is a bubble of light, colorful music that you can escape into, even if only for 40 minutes.

The lyrics match the music in terms of creating the happy world that you know you are getting into simply from looking at the cover. Franti does a combination of rapping, spoken word and amazing vocals over the course of the album, and you can really feel the effort that has been put in. It's easy to write sad songs, but to create 11 uplifting, feel good songs (albeit some quicker than others) is something that some might call hippy, happy songwriting. However I see it as a lot of hard work put into a masterpiece album.

In 'All People', Franti has finally been able to bottle up memorable beats with matching lyrics and turn it into a joyful, laid back piece of musical genius. This album is only out in North America, but all those North American readers that I may have, should go out and buy what is his best albums and potentially one of the best of this year.

9.5/10

Click here to watch the music video for his new single of the album 'I'm Alive (Life Sounds Like)'