Album Review: The Movement’s unique style of reggae rock shines in “Always With Me”
Photo courtesy of Ineffable Music.
The Movement is such an incredible band! Hailing from Columbia, South Carolina, they’ve been steadily creating positive music since 2003, and it’s been inspiring seeing the band’s growth over the years. The band’s new album, “Always With Me” is their best work yet and showcases The Movement’s unique style of reggae rock. “Always With Me” spotlights The Movement’s creativity and drives home so many inspirational messages.
In “Afraid” singer Joshua Swain encourages us to not be afraid anymore and to tackle our obstacles head on. The song features such a cool dub vibe with a thumping bass and drum tempo. Swain absolutely destroys his vocals and delivery as he does throughout the entire record.
The album has some awesome features and we love the teaming of The Movement with Slightly Stoopid in “Sounds Of Summer”. The song has a laid back vibe that has us thinking about a beach day playing in the waves with the sun on our back. It’s one of our favorite reggae summer jams! Definitely turn this one up at your next party to spread good vibes!
We have to give major props to The Movement’s horn section, who recorded such catchy grooves. They absolutely crush it in “Elephant”, which is an excellent pump up song! We’d love to catch this at one of the band’s concerts.
A band’s ability to change up pace in a song is super important, because it keeps the listener engaged and can bring different emotions to a song. The Movement is especially good at changing tempos mid song and Swain’s ability to carry a hook with his passionate vocals while mixing it up in the verse is so cool. “No Worry” is one of our favorites on the album and The Movement expertly mix their tempos in this gorgeous song.
“Chainz” shows off The Movement’s ability to blend genres. We hear a cool reggae riddim, a dub drop that reminds of Bassnectar, and Swain changes his vocals to a style that reminds us of Rage Against The Machine.
Having the chance to record with a legend like Clinton Fearon is so cool, and The Movement and Fearon’s track “Mountain” has such a playful and irie vibe.
It was awesome to hear The Movement team up with Iration in “On & On”. We especially dig the song’s laid back riddim. In fact, we’d love to see The Movement and Iration team up for a full EP or album. Just putting it out there! Their sounds compliment each other so well!
The Movement close out the album with the track “U Don’t Know Me”, which shows off the band’s versatility. It starts out with some chill acoustic guitar and then instantly engages you through Swain’s powerful lyrics and vocals. We really love the guitar and the song’s unique instrumentation. It’s yet another example of The Movement pushing musical genres aside and creating gorgeous music that inspires people around the world.
By CB.
