Over the last few weeks (or months actually, I don’t recall exactly), I’ve been coming back to Tony Tuff again and again. Previously posted is an ALBUM REVIEW and a tasty VIDEO to accompany it all. Surely, he has one of those voices that just works with the music, but there’s something else there as well. Saying that there’s an indefinable quality to his voice not found elsewhere seems like a cop out – it is. But only a few times do two things go together like Tony Tuff’s voice and reggae music (peanut butter and jelly, for instance).

Anyway after all of this repeat listening, I dug up a relatively new effort from the singer – Say Something. It’s from 2006 and is actually the first of two recordings Tony Tuff released that year. It has its ups and downs, but that’s to be expected.

After being around the recording industry for as long as Tony Tuff has, two assumptions may be made. Only one of which can be the truth, usually. The first is that you are so talented that the masses can not get enough of you, your singing and your thoughtful writing. Or second, you are holding on to that fleeting glory that you once felt and have no concept of reality any longer. Tony Tuff falls somewhere in the middle, seeing as in the past he was a part of a group with Sugar Minott, but wasn’t himself able to garner the same kind of acclaim that his one time band mate attained.

Obviously, not his fault.

But in maintaining his musical career, Tony Tuff has released Say Something. From the first to last song, it is undeniably the effort of a veteran sliding in and out of genres in order to test them out in addition to attempting to attract a new, younger fan base.

“Fulfillment” begins the album with Smokie Benz, a guest, reciting the chorus - “World gone crazy…” - in a dancehall bark. The title track here, in keeping with the rest of the album, sports female background vocals that actually add a needed dimension to the proceedings, as the ladies sing “If you wanna say something/Say something good”. It’s a positive sentiment from an artist who’s been pursuing fame for long enough to be jaded – but no.

In an odd move, though, “Action” sounds as if it came off of the Clash’s Sandinista from 1980. That’s not a criticism, just a comment. The track comes off as something more than competent and interesting as does the non-stop bass line on “Walk and Talk”.  For some reason or another, soul music was avoided throughout most of the album, but ends it all in sappy fashion, bringing to a close a better than average new roots outing.

It’s not a shock that Tony Tuff is still working – he should be. But when he finds the time to focus his approach on music again, the results might actually get him that bigger fan base that he’s been looking for.