Matisyahu’s debut pulses with rapturous reggae

Matisyahu

“Youth”

(Epic)

* * *

So after all the buildup, after the Hasidic Jewish singer became an unlikely Pied Piper luring U.S. rock fans to reggae music, how does Matisyahu do on his major-label studio album debut (due in stores Tuesday)?

It’s notable that despite its hip-hop touches and experimental quirks, Matisyahu’s is a fairly undiluted form of roots reggae. Like the 2005 live album that sparked his popularity, the new music is a dead-serious expression of the genre’s bedrock issues -- spiritual solace, the plight of the exile, the struggle for freedom, the value of community.

“Burned in the oven in this century/And the gas tried to choke but it couldn’t choke me,” he sings in the defiant, politically sensitive “Jerusalem,” bringing a particularly Jewish context to that Jamaican foundation.

Though his emotional range as a singer is narrow, the plaintive edge in his voice is gripping enough to sustain the album. Producer Bill Laswell attends to the reggae signatures -- soul-stirring syncopation, a tone of yearning -- but he also encourages experiments. The music keeps you engaged because you never know what it might do.

So how did the former Matthew Miller come by that island inflection and prophet’s glare? Matisyahu is saying it doesn’t matter -- that reggae, like any other popular music vernacular, is there for the taking.

-- Richard Cromelin

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