This is the first Cymande album for over FORTY YEARS. I’ll give you a chance to take that in – as most of you either weren’t around or hadn’t learned how to dance by 1971! Yet here they are, with most of the original band members taking their positions for ‘A Simple Act Of Faith’. Part of their endurance is due to the use of their music in samples by De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan and The Fugees, so they’ve never really gone away fully. Yet as soon as this album hits the ears it is clear they have aged incredibly well, as the easy grooves and immaculate production of ‘Everybody Turn Rasta’, ‘Do It (This Time With Feeling)’ and ‘A Moment For Reflection’ glide over the ears. There are meaningful messages here too, and songs like ‘Sea Of Tears’, ‘No Weeping’ and especially ‘Crazy Game’ address problems that are sadly all too evident in the world today – the last of the three lamenting a teenage shooting. A classy return, but a meaningful and relevant one too. Let’s hope they push on and don’t leave it another 40 years!
