Jehro - Jehro

Sat 24th Jun, 2006 in Music Reviews

Jehro, the debut release for the super-smooth French-latino troubadour, Jerome Cotta, has been released just as the Northern Hemisphere’s summer begins, and is an ideal accompaniment for laying on the beach, sipping margaritas and dancing the night away. Unfortunately, for us antipodes, we’ll either need to pack our bags and grab the next flight to the Caribbean, or wait six months until it’s our turn.

Jehro, is a soothing blend of roots and Caribbean soul, sounding somewhat like mix of Jack Johnson (with less acoustic) and Bob Marley (with less ganja), which reminisces about love, life and everything in between.

From the opener, ‘Everything’, Jehro’s super-smooth voice creates an immediately comfortable and relaxing groove, which serves to transport the listener into Jehro’s private world of everyday ups and downs; an essence of the album that resonates until its close. Upbeat percussion and cruisy backing guitar compliment Jehro’s smooth voice, as well as an easy change over into slower, more relaxing beats like in ‘Mama’.

Nonetheless, it’s not all smooth sailing in the Caribbean. ‘Long is the way’ offers a personal insight into the unfulfilled dreams and heartbreak of a young traveller, who is returning home empty handed to face “the promises that died”. Even in this solemn track though, Jehro’s voice soothes the pain and provides an intimate sense of comfort.

Jehro teaches us all a lesson on how to move on from the down times, in the following song ‘Sweet’: a lullaby to a sweet, sweet girl he met in a market place. Jehro is easily forgiven for his primitive lyrics on this track, like “dream so sweetly tonight” or “your sweet like sugar and spice, girl”, as by the time this one clocks around, you’re already deep within Jehro’s world of enjoying the simple things in life, and making the most of the beauty you find in everyday places – places like the ‘shantytown carnival’.

Jehro, also pays tribute to Rastafarian legends like Bob Marley, in ‘I Want Love’ with its cruisy reggae beat and references to political issues of war, hunger and tribal warfare. But Jehro but is suitably distanced from the Marley stereotype, as he declares “hash won’t keep hunger at bay”.

Even the most cynical, unimaginative of persons; a category of which I occasionally consider to be in myself, will have a hard time getting past Jehro’s euphoric melodies, and his sense of escapism. The most negative aspect of this release is that a one-way ticket to the Caribbean is not, unfortunately, included with the disc; although I think Jehro can be forgiven that.