Major Lazer ‘Peace Is the Mission’: A Track-by-Track Review

It’s almost absurd to consider a Major Lazer album a traditional one at this point. Over the past six years, Diplo’s concept for exploring reggae and dancehall’s organic connection to inorganic EDM has broken literally every known and unknown rule in the music industry. Major Lazer’s spawned collaborations between producers and artists that are both similar and dissimilar to each other, with equal levels of success.

To perceive Major Lazer as just music anymore is missing the point. Tracks on this album, including “Ghost Riders” and “Powerful,” were premiered via Major Lazer, the weekly cartoon program on FXX that features the irie and madcap adventures of the laser-gun-armed Rastafarian army major and his friends. This concept is as much pop as it is fantasy, establishing a wild new reality for music that is more directly aimed at the mainstream than ever before. Of this album’s nine tracks, three deal the zeitgeist grievous blows. The other six serve more as warning shots, this sound and idea an ever-evolving thing that improves in aim, reach, scope and vision on each release.

1. “Be Together” ft. Wild Belle

Melodic and soulful trap ballads that kick off with “Strawberry Fields Forever” psychedelic rock feels are rare. But then again, the dancehall-meets-the-world vibe of a Major Lazer release definitely allows for an entire album’s worth of inventive and progressive concepts. Wild Belle vocalist Natalie Bergman recalls Corinne Bailey Rae, the pleasant, throaty croak of the vocal working just as well as the steel pans that get chopped brilliantly in the track. Overall, this track succeeds. What separates this album from Major Lazer’s previous releases is that the feel of Peace is edging closer to the mainstream than ever before.

2. “Too Original” ft. Elliphant & Jovi Rockwell

Feel free to make all of the Zac Efron and We Are Your Friends jokes you want when Jovi Rockwell talks about the 128 beat here. However, this track’s most exciting note is that it feels like an homage to the over-the-top, blaring horn synths of “Jah No Partial” from 2013 album Free the Universe. Here, it’s what pushes the thump of the bassline up to the imaginary ceiling of the production, the track banging with an electric pounding against this false roof to create the proper mix of rave energy and the sweaty and organic underground vibe.

3. “Blaze up the Fire” ft. Chronixx

Of course, there’s a marijuana anthem or three on this release. Double-time reggae style blended with razor-sharp trap breaks probably feels like paint-by-numbers for the more hyper-aware electronic fanatic; but for the festival or big-room partier who sees dance music as a weekly, monthly or yearly experience, this nails a very temporal vibe that exudes a spring-break-forever spirit. Second-generation reggae toaster Chronixx nails his vocal, and while this one breaks no new ground, it certainly treads well in a very well established lane.

4. “Lean On” ft. MØ & DJ Snake

Bollywood-flavored moombahton has been a thing ever since David Heartbreak released the swerving and bleeping thumper “Chaavi” on Toddla T’s Boys Music label in 2011. Not since its release has the space between Indian sounds and tropical bass been so well mined. It takes trap master DJ Snake’s influence to make it happen again, this one a true showcase of the importance of the Dembow riddim to the sound. MØ’s vocal is great here, as the production is actually quite fragile. All of the pound and sway of OG moombahtonistas like Heartbreak are here only in memory as the push toward a cohesive, Top 40 sound definitely allows for more instrumentation, effects, and a bright, yearning vocal in the mix.

5. “Powerful” ft. Ellie Goulding & Tarrus Riley

Ellie Goulding pairs with reggae vocalist Tarrus Riley for “Powerful,” the album’s best overall pop single and, actually, one of the year’s best songs to date. It might be unintentional, but there’s a drag in the sweep of the lower end that mixes with the way the kicks in the bassline are set—it feels so similar to the chopped-not-slopped, inspired trap that’s dominating pop/R&B at present. Toss in deliriously euphoric builds and two vocals that can sit on the melody and soar to the heavens, and it’s magical. A straight-up lovelorn soul ballad that, unfettered, can fill the position of peak-hour champion sound? If Major Lazer pulls this one off at festivals this summer, then it’s a total game-changer.

6. “Light It Up” ft. Nyla

Moombahton’s certainly not dead when it comes to this album. Vanessa Williams’ 1991 Isley Brothers cover pop single “Work to Do” is the archetype of this track. Similar to that production, there’s a uniquely syrupy swing that comes from a minor-key-driven melody blending with pounding kicks that gives it a party-friendly, gut-bucket feel. This is a ‘90s urban pop record that in 2015 gets to masquerade as an EDM hit. Everything old is literally new again. Quietly one of moombahsoul’s biggest victories ever would be this track getting a deserved run on urban radio. It’s not ostentatious, but it’s still an earworm.

7. “Roll the Bass”

Double-time basslines introduce drum & bass into the Major Lazer sonic stew. Blend the electro zouk, trap and zouk bass effects sweeping into the production, and this one is either a mess of a track or sheer brilliance—your choice. If nothing mentioned in the last two sentences even makes one lick of sense to you, you’re at the rave just waiting for this one to drop ‘cause it’s that weird track you can jump up and down to. On some level, that’s where we are now, and we definitely have to accept it as being totally okay.

8. “Night Riders” ft. Travi$ Scott, 2 Chainz, Pusha T & Mad Cobra

It’s an easy argument to make that rap’s biggest trap anthems of 2015 have nothing at all to do with DJ Mustard, Mike WILL Made It or Kanye West. Eclipsing the work of Brodinski and Bloody Jay in electronic music’s revolutionary takeover of rap is Major Lazer’s collab with rappers Travi$ Scott, 2 Chainz, Pusha T, and legendary dancehall emcee Mad Cobra for thug anthem “Night Riders.” The dragging snare rolls on this one sound like bullets, and for fans of Young Thug, Travi$ Scott on the hook will totally send you over the edge.

9. “All My Love” ft. Ariana Grande & Machel Montano (Remix)

I can’t imagine that anyone was particularly waiting with bated breath for Ariana Grande to pair with well-regarded soca vocalist Machel Montano on a moombahton remix, but it happened. This is well executed, though, and probably should lead to electronic fans openly questioning why more Caribbean vocalists aren’t working in mainstream dance right now; everyone from Disclosure to Jamie xx and so many more could likely benefit from the unique timbre of these voices on their soulful productions. Reggae-derived lovers’ rock as a musical concept has worked for generations in UK pop and probably has a wider global appeal.

Major Lazer’s Peace Is the Mission is available now on Mad Decent.

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