Album of the Week: Get Wiser

Get Wiser

Soldiers of Jah Army

Get Wiser is the fourth studio album by the reggae band, Soldiers of Jah Army that was released in January 2006.

Tracklist:

1. "Open My Eyes" - 5:08

2. "By My Side" - 4:12

3. "My Life Alone" - 4:02

4. "Faith Works" - 5:04

5. "What Would?" - 3:35

6. "Strong For Them" - 5:19

7. "Can't Tell Me" - 5:23

8. "Be Aware" - 4:10

9. "I've Got Time" - 5:09

10. "Sorry" - 4:51

11. "Bring Back Truth" - 7:08

12. "You Don't Know Me" - 4:25

13. "911" - 4:50

14. "Devils" - 8:58

Why I Chose This

Before I get into why I really like this album, I'll give you the story of how I came to first hear it. It was a Friday night about 2 months ago, and I walked from work on George St to Oxford St to meet up with a friend. After getting some delicious Indian food, we struck up a conversation with two middle-eastern men outside a pizza store, one of them was the owner. As he was telling us about his financial troubles (and with me standing on Oxford St getting people to come into his store), three of Anna's friends walked by with no plans of their own as well. Naturally, we bought a box of goon and drank it outside the pizza store. Cut to an hour later, and I was feeling the awesome effects from cheap cask wine. We strolled across the road to the Oxford Art Factory, and danced for a further two hours. Sitting on the curb at about 2:30 am having what we thought to be the last cigarette of the night, a small car pulled up next to us, inside were 4 Brazilians asking for a light. The night had just begun.

"Hey, you guys wanna come back to house in Bondi? - we have driiiinks and the smookes" - as soon as he mentioned that he had Jean-Claude Van Amsterdam my tiredness strangely disappeared, and before I knew it I was wedged in between two Brazilian dudes in a little hatch-back flying down Oxford St towards Bondi. We arrived at their house and greeted their many roommates. It was an awesome double story old house on Bondi Rd, with stuff everywhere as they were moving the next day. I followed Fuad (our driver, who I later found out had drank a bottle of whiskey before picking us up) into the living room - and continued to watch as he packed a large colourful apparatus  with whacky tobaccy. If you ever want a combination to make you really happy, drink lots of goon and breathe in lots of what this guy gave me. 

"Music!", Fuad requested as he fulfilled his own request by plugging in his ipod into large speakers that were standing on the floor. My ears were ready for a musical treat, and I was waiting in keen anticipation on what this dread-locked Brazilian would grace me with. The track "I've Got Time" begun, and I was instantly in love with this album. Fuad had Get Wiser on repeat the whole night, the perfect way of introducing me to reggae music. That night before I passed out on his mattress (with 3 other people next to me), I lent over and swiped a glance across the ipod screen, noticing that all the tracks were in Spanish (where's Eden when you need him!!) - luckily the artist was in English so I entered it into my phone so as not to forget.

Whenever I feel like chilling out, this is the perfect album. It has some serious soul power. After listening to it for about 7-8 times, I downloaded another reggae classic - Bob Marley & The Wailers' 1977 album Exodus. I could do a whole album of the week on that album alone because it is like God is cumming in my ears; it is a thing of beauty. Peace be with you all.

- Russell