Midnite Lover

08/26/1997 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor

While most reggae features a draggy stoner beat that seems to encourage the smoking of marijuana and loitering at local convenience stores, this fella named Shaggy--whose second album,

Boombastic, was awarded a Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 1995--seems much more attuned to the American way of life. He raps fast and for the most part keeps his beats up to ensure productivity levels are kept to standard. You won't fall asleep to this stuff. If you try, you'll find that Shaggy's unusual vocal technique--half

Roland Gift/half speed-freak--will wake you up with indecipherable spew. This incomprehensible babbling renders nearly the entire album too annoying for words. "Sexy Body Girls" has a nice angel-dusted witch-doctor sound, sure to be big with the kids, but the cover of "Piece Of My Heart," which features the first-named-only "Marsha" on lead vocals, is laughable.