ORANGE SKY
Upstairs
Granite Records 2005
www.theorangesky.com

What’s the 4-1-1?
The debut album from the Trinidad based rock band introduces us to Orange Sky’s hybrid sound of hard rock and reggae.

Genre
Rock / reggae / roots rock

The Good
The Trinidad based band Orange Sky has a great mix of rock music and reggae influences here. Singer and lead guitarist Nigel Rojas has a nice husky vocal delivery with a soulful undertone that he can switch easily enough over to a more reggae inflection. The band has come up with quite a debut album, and there is nary a misstep here. The band even manages to cover the Cat Steven’s song “Peace Train” and make it sound great instead of wimpy like the original.

“Alone” features a great rapid fire delivery, and “Beautiful Day” has a wonderful combination of rock music and the full on reggae vocals. It’s actually pretty hard to pick favorite songs out of this album because there are no filler tracks. “Tug Of War” has a great opening guitar riff and a heavy guitar sound throughout the track, while “Alive” features a superb guitar solo. The drummer, Obasi Springer, has an excellent sense of providing a foundation for the music.

The Bad
Sorry, nothing to see here, move it along.

The Verdict
You can call me very surprised. If you had told me one of the best sounding rock albums would be coming out of the nation of Trinidad & Tobago, I’d have told you that you needed to be getting some serious therapy. All that needs to be said is that this is an album you should really feel the need to check out for yourself. It’s superb!

Did You Know?
Orange Sky is so popular in their native country they were named international ambassadors by the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Tourism. Drummer Obasi Springer formerly played in a steel-drum group with his father.

Rating: out of 5

-- Jay Roberts