SuperHeavy’s debut album generates the return of the supergroup with an unconventional but winning mixture of Bollywood, Rock, and Reggae.

by Christopher Jou ‘12

Given the abundance of album releases this autumn, it is difficult for any band to stand out in the crowd, but when such high-profile celebrities release an album, it is almost impossible to fade into the background. And when “A-List” celebrities join forces, the band SuperHeavy releases the debut album “SuperHeavy”. So far, so good.

SuperHeavy is composed of Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones; Joss Stone, a soul singer and song-writer; Dave Stewart of Eurythmics; Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, the son of Bob Marley; and A.R. Rahman, the composer of “Slumdog Millionaire.” Stewart describes the band on the SuperHeavy website as, “a mad alchemist type experiment,” which pretty accurately describes the music they have wrought on this album as well. When trying to find a name for the project, Marley had been inspired by super heavyweight champion Muhammed Ali, to which Jagger said, “Why don’t we call it SuperHeavy?” And thus, the band’s name was born.

The music is extremely interesting in that it mixes different genres in an unexpected way. The album’s title song “SuperHeavy” starts with an ambient violin chorus. After the short intro, the brilliant composition of Marley’s toasting (or alternatively chanting or deejaying) comes in, layered with that of Stone and Jagger, with the two occasionally coming in for solos. Towards the end of the song, Rahman starts singing in Hindi just before the conclusion of everyone coming together in a chorus. While the chord progressions and general complexity are not extremely deep, the combination of the instruments and vocals is almost perfect.

Because this album is an “alchemist type experiment,” however, the title song is just the beginning of what the album has to offer. The song “Energy,” for example, starts out with an electro-synth riff and flows into Stone’s and Jagger’s amazing vocals once again. Other songs are distinctly Bollywood, like “Satyaneva Jayathe,” with the lyrics almost entirely in Hindi, with the surprising addition of a rock beat, a violin and synth solo, and the remainder of the album only gets better.

While the song can get repetitive, it combines these genres and more in such a way that it is a pleasure just focusing on the instrumentals than the vocals at times. Also included on “SuperHeavy” is a tasteful 70s song, some clearly soul-influenced songs, reggae and so on. The supergroup has also already done a music video for one of the songs on the album. The “Miracle Worker” video is set in what appears to be a ridiculously diverse neighborhood, but it is most amusing for Mick Jagger’s hot pink pant suit.

While this album may not be for everyone, the combination of voices and styles in this work blends well and there is a bit of everything for adventurous listeners. The union of reggae, rock, soul and Indian could have easily been a failed experiment, but instead alters what were already precious metals into even more precious gems.