Summer jam for the ages (or at least the summer)
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Summer jams are important for what they add to the season and how they come to define it, so a lot rides on picking the right one. It can be stressful, a hassle—everything a summer jam should definitely not be.
Allow us, then, to pick one for you: Zoelah's "Wine Up On Me." It lives in the middle of Soca Gold 2009, a new gem of a CD/DVD package and one of several themed compilations put out by the Queens-based label VP Records each year (see also: Reggae Gold 2009, the many volumes of the series Strictly The Best, etc.) The DVD features music videos with no shortage of sun-splashed sequins and jiggling flesh, and the CD features the kind of songs that mark soca as the (madcap, digressive, all-over-the-place, often delightfully insane) pop sound of the Caribbean.
"Wine Up On Me" gets better the more you play it, so don't expect to catch all its charms the first time through. And don't expect to be ready for the guitar solo to end as it all comes to a close either.
