Album Review: Darryl Gervais in 'REBORN'

South born and bred Darryl Gervais has embarked on creating songs of a difference within Trinbagonian Gospel, with an R&B twist that has won over many. When I first heard the title track 'Reborn' and saw the music video I was stunned; to the point that I was excited to share the link to it online and let everyone see a young man that understood creating 'excellence' in the Kingdom of Heaven. Darryl's approach to Ministry is both commendable and admirable. With an album that was truly heart-felt, DJ Liv Strong once again gives his thoughts on the project.

Artist: Darryl Gervais

Album: Reborn

Record Label:

Breakdown:

Let’s start with a prayer. Giving thanks to God when we start to do something is way underrated on albums. It sometimes falls into a cliché like, “Well he is a Christian, so he should pray to start.” The name of this album however is “Reborn”. The prayer is one of extreme penitence because the process of being reborn is one that extracts humility from an individual. The display of humility in this intro is phenomenal by itself and twice as impacting with the heavenly guitar strums that accompany it.

The title track has a simplistic nursery rhyme melody that is brought out by the deliberately simple and low key drum pattern which consists of a simple snare, high hat and hints of African drums. The song itself is a desperate cry for the work of God in Darryl's life. Total surrender is the type of attitude being displayed which is right on point, for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The flow of this album, might I add, is very consistent with it’s name . After begging to be reborn Darryl goes into repentance. The song “I apologize” needs no further detailing. I absolutely love how it flows from the plea to be reborn one track before. The vocals are reminiscent of a boy band, although it seems like the boys of this band consist of Darryl Gervais and his alias voices. Production credits go to Mark Dingwell who seems to have worked hand in hand with Darryl for his mellow mesh of musical and vocal goodness.

Again I must talk about the flow from track to track. It is highly commendable especially in a time where a lot of artists put together an album which can be considered a collection of singles and a consistent theme is nowhere to be found. A song of surrender follows an apology/repentance to God. The guitars on the track sound off key from time to time. It may have been planned or it may not. You can decide, for I gather your musical ear may have more validity in its analysis than mine. Key line of this song, “You never know, any day you could go.” Selah

What do you do after you surrender? The power of God is manifested and requested through prayer. The words that speak about how rough the road can get sometimes remind me of an early Christian walk, that is filled with all sorts of hopes and expectations. When we begin, we realize that it’s not as cool as it looked when we first committed. What does Darryl suggest you do? Just Pray. The instrumentals are not as elaborate here again. I found that it could have had some more filling in the beat because the live feeling tends to get worn on an album because live is meant for live with a cameo appearance on an album from time to time.

Compliments go out to the flow and track positioning again. 'I Don’t Know' is like the anthem of any truly repentant believer. The flow is purposefully off beat which is good but the flute is somewhat too much at the forefront at times and takes away from the message which inevitably gets lost in the instruments at times. The break with the choir is commendable though. The voice of Kirissar Ramesar comes in and adds variety to the album’s vocals.  It doesn’t start off the best but I love the way the song ends.

'Warfare' attempts to take the album back into the era of Hip Hop where the vocals of the emcee was either given a slight echo by force or just by the ambience where it is performed. Lyrically it holds it’s own providing a clear message without turning you off with verbiage. I however missed Darryl’s presence on the track. I could not tell if he was rapping or not, but for an R&B artist he did not seem to even play a major part of the hook which featured Koen Duncan.

'Praise Party' and 'Thank You' end off the album with the former, more action based with frequent references to putting your hands up and clapping. Typical R&B track featuring an Emcee who throws in 16 bars for good measure. “Thank You” is one of the album’s best tracks in my opinion which mixed Darryl’s vocals with on point backups, and a melodically infections groovy soca beat. I see this song as complete and well packaged.

The techno Mix to surrender adds a techno drum pattern and some synthesizers to the original track. It would have been nice to have some new lyrics to really qualify it as a remix. It is however named 'Techno Mix' so I can’t complain.

The flow out of the album is just as fitting as the introduction. No matter what you go through as a born again believer you always have to go back to God for everything. It shows that victory is not ours but it is the Lord who get’s the glory. That’s why we ask Him to do it and give Him the credit.

Overall this album is strongly thematic and has a distinct flow in the area of track selection. It may seem to lack some things instrumentally wise but that is a largely subjective observation. The diversity of music depends on the listener. R&B in Trinidad and Tobago may not be the most sought after genre of music for both artists and producers but Darryl has proven that it can be done and be done well at that. Don’t hesitate to buy it if you love R&B gospel because it may spend a lot of time in your playlist rotation.

METERS:

Milk and Meat:

Timbrel and Harp:

Jew and Gentile:

Written by :

Andre Charles

 

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