Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
When you are a Queen, a public proclaimed member of musical royalty, almost anything is possible, no song is out of touch, no struggle in the search for a tune that is deemed brave, beautiful or positively full of bounce, is never going to be cast aside and dismissed as out of bounds, for a Queen, especially one who has done so much to bring Calypso to an even greater audience, a woman who broke the domination of the genre and gave it a distinctly female voice.
So Calypso! – So Calypso Rose. A woman and artist of intensity and passion, to whom the world owes much for her spirit and her determination to show that a woman’s voice can not only be heard; but be admired fully.
Taking another stride Far From Home is just the point of the journey we decide to undertake, but sometimes that journey needs, requires with full heart, to step back and reflect on where it has come from, and just how deeply spiritual and soul nourishing it has been. To pay homage to your own past is endeavour of a truth, to mirror and seek out that which first inspired you, or which took your hand upon the way, that is accurate depiction of praise where it is due.
On So Calypso! Calypso Rose pays tribute to those who she actively acknowledges as influencing her career, as well as giving her fans a selection of songs from her own substantial musical pursuits.
Interweaved between covers of Nat King Cole’s Calypso Blues, Underneath the Mango Tree by Diana Coupland and Monty Norman, Dionne Warwick’s I Say A Little Prayer, The Andrew Sisters’ Rum and Coca Cola and a rather cool version of The Melodian’s Rivers of Babylon, comes songs such as Back To Africa, Sweet Brown Sugar, A Man is a Man and How Long; the mix and variety of the lyrics is rich, one that could be seen as off putting to some artists because of their depth and history, but in the hands of Calypso Rose take on a beautiful, upbeat, sentimental passion that is impossible to ignore, and one that holds the smile on the face with a broad, fixed veracity.
An album of charm, one that rolls through the listener’s heart with ease, So Calypso! – so energetic and wonderfully charismatic.
Ian D. Hall