Scorcha is Sean Paul’s 8th studio album and his Island records debut. It is a digestible serving of upscale dancehall music. All of his previous hits were with Atlantic/VP records and the 2021 independent album Live N Livin was supposed to be a warm up set in preparation for this album which is almost a year late.
Compared to the Grammy nominated Live N Livin, Scorcha excels on the production side. Both albums could have been released at the same time to save on marketing budget.
Every song on Scrocha is hot and is potentially a radio hit. He makes radio good songs, but in the streaming era, catchy choruses and impromptu ad libs may not be enough to ride the waves on TikTok. Who needs TikTok when you have the lingua, a perfect pitch shouting ‘buddibang bang bang’ over drum and bass on every track; a signature sound he admittedly borrowed from the 80s dancehall style converts well in 2022.
With 16-tracks, the album spawns a little reggaeton, afrobeats, features Pia Mia, Ty Dolla $ign, Jada Kingdom, Sia, Gwen Stefani, Shenseea, Tove Lo, Stylo G, Damian Marley, and Nicky Jam.
The question Scorcha will answer is whether he can top his previous in a post pandemic music ecosystem on the tail end of his illustrious career.
On every track Sean deliberately uses culturally specific terms and lyrics like ‘scotch bonnet pepper’ to emphasize how hot he is. It is part of what keeps him close to the people of Jamaica without having to be overly street or gangster. At intervals he is a club hopping playa on tracks like Only Fanz featuring Ty Dolla $ign, Earthquake, Borrowed TIme and Pon Di Real featuring Stylo G, but he is also expressing conscious lyrics on songs like Good Day and No Fear which bring some depth to the party heavy album.
Bouncing featuring Jada Kingdom is among the standouts and my find favour in the strip clubs. Jada Kingdom needed the push to take one the international scene and this is a well placed introductory track.
The five singles released have not been enough to generate the excitement required of an international superstar. I get the sense that he is still excited about making music from his heart, but now on his schedule.
3.9/5
