Jan 5, 2018 - When Matisyahu emerged in 2004 with his debut album, Shake Off the Dust.Arise, his musical persona seemed a novelty to some.

Matisyahu Light Rating: 3.0/5.0 Label: Epic If you don’t know Matisyahu’s shtick by now, it’s pretty easy to explain. American Matthew Miller, raised Jewish yet not particularly religious, converts to Orthodox Judaism after a spiritual awakening around his 16th birthday. Adopting the moniker Matisyahu, the longtime Deadhead and fan of Bob Marley and Phish begins performing spiritually-infused reggae music in full Hasidic Jewish garb. So yes, Matisyahu is – on the surface level – an interesting gimmick. But looking past that, Miller has managed to transform over time from a somewhat average reggae musician with an interesting religious hook to a dub-rock musician with a particularly unforgiving taste for pop forays. Throw all that preachiness in the mix and Matisyahu has gotten less believable and more annoying over time. Which brings us to Light.

Taking three of the most dancehall-friendly tracks that made up Matisyahu’s generally uninteresting 2008 EP Shattered and adding 10 more dance-oriented tracks to fill out the disc, Light sounds little like Miller’s early work. It instead is a full immersion in the synth-heavy dance sounds of contemporary pop-radio, using Matisyahu’s distinct vocal style – half Jack Johnson crooning, half sludgy reggae bleats, yelps and moans – and religious flavor to differentiate itself. Here, this works much better the farther his tracks roam from reggae, which – interestingly – makes the second half of the album an altogether more pleasant listen. Light opens with the crazy Yiddish-toasting-Lil Jon hybrid “Smash Lies”, sure to wake up the most apathetic of listeners. The Shattered centerpiece isn’t a perfect track – neither glossy enough to play in any American bar nor lyrically deep enough to merit analytic listens – but it illustrates what is to come; Matisyahu’s production throws in Ratatat guitar and Deep South cymbal runs, energetic cries with keyboard accents straight out of “Yeah,” and some street-musician stringed instrument fitting it all in with Matisyahu’s black-robed and curly-bearded identity. “We Will Walk” features a similar sing-rap delivery and more explicit reference to divine belief, and the torrents of distortion beneath the melody of “Escape” pay homage to Burial and dubstep.

If this is reggae, it’s Damian versus Bob. For this reason – and for good or bad – much of Light also raises the question of Matisyahu’s authenticity. If the guy has strong beliefs and wants to communicate those musically, it’s probably a good thing if he can manage to improve on the largely (and justifiably) maligned genre of American religious rock. Unfortunately, some of his lyrics stretch the timeline of that spiritual dedication too much. “One Day” goes so far as to use the phrase “ All my life/ I’ve been waiting for/ I’ve been praying for/ For the people to say/ That we don’t want to fight no more.” Let’s face it: Matisyahu is a musically evolving reggae artist with an unusual haircut, not Gandhi. But focusing on the music itself, Light is a strong and surprising improvement over Matisyahu’s last LP, Youth. Miller was smart to choose between traditional reggae forms or more bastardized dancehall sounds; mixing the two and still shooting for frat-boy popularity wasn’t really working.

But Light still manages to get his “ I will be light” point across without coming off too elitist (often by prioritizing sounds versus vocals), and certainly brings a few great party-playlist contributions to the table. “For You” finds Matisyahu bending his vocals soulfully, “On Nature” makes for a descent sing-along (complete with a choir of children joining the fray), and the sample that forms the foundation of “Struggla” would make Common proud. Id works datacard serial number crack softwares. It might be a stretch to call Matisyahu funky, but he certainly has figured out what makes his better tracks popular and has wisely jumped headfirst into the pool of pop-radio sounds.