Felice Rosser was born in Detroit before moving to New York City for college. After witnessing Television at CBGB`s and befriending Patti Smith she began to write songs and play bass in Brooklyn’s all-female reggae band Sistren before she formed FaithNYC in 1988. Her new album ‘Love Is a Wish Away,’ was produced by Justin Adams, the Robert Plant, Tinariwen and Sinead O’Connor collaborator, who also plays guitar on the album along with Fin Hunt on drums and percussion.
Title track `Love Is A Wish Away’ opens the album and it`s a delightfully bluesy foot tapper with a captivating percussive beat and big muscular voice that really gets into you psyche and will have you singing the chorus for the rest of the day. There`s a much funkier vibe with a touch of Afrobeat to `I Stood Up` which to me had the same kind of lyrical sentiment expressed in Bob Marley`s `Get up, Stand Up`
`Eagle Street` is wonderfully introspective and reflective and muses on past happier youthful times and especially somebody who is now just a pleasant memory. We have in `Can I Make It Up To You?` a song of guilt and regret at being out of the country when Felice`s grandmother died. A charming and slightly heartbreaking eulogy of sorts.
`Love in a silent Way` has a rhythmic almost tribal beat that allows Felice`s deep vocals to really resonate on this slow burn of a track that really draws you into its enticing web. We enjoy a number with a reggae tinge in `Useless` which I read is about losing a job, and the friendships that go with it. The use of what sounded like a melodica brought to mind the late Agustus Pablo.
`Everything is always around you` is a fairly uplifting and inspiring listen which mirrors the sentiment shared in the lyrical content. Another track with a slight reggae vibe but more dub like this time. We have a rock offering in `Overpass` which muses again on times past and heading to somewhere which was once familiar but seems no longer to exist apart from your imagination.
The album closes out with `Climbing all the way to Zion` which had a soulful funky sense and lyrics that seem to refer to a spiritual searching for Zion that “holy place” or “kingdom of heaven.”
I have to say I really loved `Love Is a Wish Away’ which offered a variety of musical styles with blues, funk, afrobeat, reggae and rock shared with a captivating deep vocal range and some thoughtful lyrics.
As to why Felice Rosser and FaithNYC aren`t better known is beyond me but maybe this album will change that. Here`s hoping.
Rating 8.5/10
