This is my first dose of Donny Yardas. He appeared back in 2006 with the single ‘Bullet’ featuring Mr. Easy, Noah wid di Powah & Ricky Blaze on the 'Wipe Out Riddim'. Donny seems to have made a name for himself throughout the New York Tri-State area, packing out clubs and gaining recognition from New York radio stations. This self titled release is Donny’s debut album and features a host of guests vocalists.

The album itself is a bang up-to-date, modern, digital affair. The first handfuls of songs encompass all that I have come to loathe about modern so-called ‘Reggae’. Firstly it’s not reggae and no one should suggest otherwise. It's modern, MTV styled, RnB with the occasional Jamaican accent. It's glossy, over produced and radio friendly. It has no substance; the lyrics simply revolve around sexy women and the music is soulless. These tracks could easily belong to any one of the seemly hundreds of so called artists churning out this type of commercial dross.

In saying that the album takes a slightly different road with cuts like ‘Pree We’ & ‘Get It Poppin’, delving into the dancehall style with sparse riddims and heavy drum sounds. These tracks will no doubt go down a treat at modern dancehall dances, but still do very little to excite me.

The couple of tracks that did jump out at me were ‘Burning’ (Feat. Isa Starr & Lion Melta). This cut features clever use of a sample from Burning Spear's ‘Door Peep’, using it as the basis for a heavy and deep rooted hip-hop track. The beautiful and soulful voice of Isa Starr complements the track extremely well. The second track of note is ‘Nostrand and Maple’. This really stands out as an imaginative piece of work. Donny makes clever use of the Bob Marley classic ‘Caution’, with the lyrics speaking of determination and struggle. The song is apparently autobiographically in nature.

Overall this is clearly not to my tastes and maybe I'm not the best person to review such works. However in saying that I do find it a shame that some, so called, reggae artists feel they must travel down the same road as modern RnB acts, simply producing soulless music for the masses to make a quick coin. Donny Yardas clearly has talent and I hope that talent shines through on future releases.

Review by JumpUp

1. Boot Legga Intro

2. Tell Me (Feat. Wayne Smith)

3. One for Me (Feat. Mr. Easy)

4. Your Eyez (Feat. Sincere)

5. Come Ova (Feat. Koia)

6. Sexy (Feat. Sincere)

7. I Wanna Know

8. Top of the World Agency Interlude

9. Pree We (Feat. Joe Lickshot)

10. Burnin (Feat. Isa Starr & Lion Melta)

11. Nostrand & Maple

12. Get It Poppin (Feat. Noah)

13. That We Like (Feat. Baby Wayne)

14. Feel That (Feat. Triad Band)