by Wilfred Okiche
The album art for Double Trouble, Psquare’s latest collection of inescapable party starters, characterized mostly by inane, repetitive lyrics and formulaic love songs, set to big banging beats is almost as banal as the album title itself. After more than 10 years atop the music business, performing at pop music’s highest levels, it just feels dispiriting that for their 6th studio album, everyone’s favourite twins would resort to a hackneyed phrase for an album title.
Anyone hoping for a confessional record where the brothers address recent upheavals in their lives- tabloid worthy fare such as weddings, birth and separation rumours – must not know what Psquare has been about these past 10 years. They neatly sidestep all the drama that could have been great fodder for an intimate experience and put their considerable talents into making a record that few singles aside, could have been released last year, or the year before, or the year before that.
No one does formula like Psquare and they stick to home turf here. And why shouldn’t they? After selling millions of records and scoring millions more in performance fees, the fans are obviously gobbling up whatever it is they are selling. If it ain’t broke, the saying goes.
Don’t let the plastic bubble gum 80’s pop feel of the album’s lead single Ejeajo (with T.I) fool you into thinking P-Square are in this for anything other than the money. Ejeajo is an experimental sound that survived both a cringe inducing second line, (I don taste the money), and a muddy, incoherent T.I guest verse to emerge as a tasty guilty pleasure. The synths and heavy bass lines are so bombastic, they own the song and the result offers a hint of what Psquare could be capable of should they ever choose to get their heads out of a luxury induced complacency.
Another potential earworm is the album’s opener Shekini. No one comes to Psquare for originality but none can argue that they follow trends excellently. With Shekini, the brothers hop on the Shoki dance wagon like the savvy businessman that they are and deliver a tune that even the original proponents of the Shoki craze would be proud of.
Another massive jam red flag is the Don Jazzy produced Collabo. Don-Jazzy’s star presence and unique ad-libs certainly do not hurt the highlife influenced number, but Psquare doesn’t need Don Dorobucci to come up with this song, it is the kind of thing they do in their sleep; obvious title, bland lyrics and all.
One of the few signs of growth in the brothers on this record, is perhaps a marketing ploy too. Highlife melodies are big now and Psquare exploits this trend to create monsters like MMS (the best of them), Ogadigide, Ije love and Sari sari (the weakest). There seems to be some industry conspiracy going on to try to make Soukous happen again but the jury is still out on the results so far and Enemy solo (with Awilo Longomba) doesn’t exactly conclude the argument.
On the rare occasion, they venture into uncharted territory, like on Zombie, an afrobeat-meets- Jackson 5 mashup that has their new buddy, Jermaine Jackson wailing delicately in that famous Jackson family falsetto. It is a fresh sound and a welcome surprise. Dave Scott single handedly elevates the gritty grind of Bring it on and takes the song out of the mandatory Psquare ordinariness.
Materialism is at the very core of the Psquare brand and on this record, they make it very clear that they are “allergic to poverty”. The tunes may be feel good but the message is embarrassingly clear. They want you to know about their wealth and they don’t mind throwing shade at mere mortals who may not enjoy quite as much. They even get their guests in on the financial theme. Jermaine Jackson sings about hustling to make the Naira and the Dollar, Dave Scott croons about not caring what you do or where you are from, just as long as you make the money. Don Jazzy gloats of having a money lending source should he ever go broke and surely even Awilo must be chanting some money making tips in his native Langila.
All the talk about money may be off putting at times and the album may be as manipulative as a big label product but for the most part, especially when one makes a serious attempt to ignore the silliness that passes for song writing on the record, it is purely pleasurable to listen to. And to dance along to. Definitely more tolerable than their last outing, 2011’s The Invasion.
Double Trouble may be worth the money spent after all.
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