Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
If you’ve been keeping up with the worldbeat scene as of late, you’ve probably heard of Barrington Levy, and his new single “Money is the Drug” is helping his brand to grow out of the underground and into the spotlight of a mainstream desperate for more international tones in 2023. Levy mixes influences from world music, pop, reggae, and folk music when he approached the drawing board before making this new track, and while such a proposed melting pot of melodies can yield demanding listens now and again, “Money is the Drug” is one of the more accessible experimental songs I’ve heard in a long while. There’s still a whole lot of intricacies to behold in the lighthearted harmonies that adorn every verse, but next to the bloated content that has been increasingly present in the underground this year, this is an undebatable upgrade no matter how we break it down.
The foundation of “Money is the Drug” is the vocal harmony that wisps through the stanzas at the start of the track and comes into full form in the chorus, and it’s steeped in a minimalist look that I think Levy wears better than most. There’s a bit of hesitancy from the percussion in this song, but it’s so distant in the master mix that I don’t find it as big an issue as it would have been were things arranged with a bit more focus on physicality in this performance than there ultimately ended up being.
The vocal track salvages everything that these two elements discard with impunity and makes “Money is the Drug” a lot more palatable to both casual fans and hardcore indie disciples alike – which, in itself, is no easy feat to pull off for any artist, no matter the music being made in the studio. I love that the music video is on equal ground with the source material because had it been dressed up with a lot of external varnish it might have been just a little more difficult to see how much energy this player is devoting to the strength of his songcraft alone (as opposed to the cosmetics of a visualizer like this one).
I’d recommend keeping a close eye on this character in the wake of the success that his sound has been racking up in the last few months. Barrington Levy is coming into his own and carving out a sweet little spot for himself in the hierarchy of the international underground, and though he still needs to sharpen a couple of his tools, it’s works like “Money is the Drug” proving without a doubt that he’s got a moxie I don’t see taking him anywhere but into the spotlight. 2023 has been an exciting year for emerging indie artists around North America, and this musician – and his new single – can be counted as among the season’s more curious stories. If you’ve got an ear for sterling harmonies, this is an artist who is making exactly the kind of music you want to hear this month.
Beatrice Kruger
