2 June 2001
‘Better than ‘It Wasn’t Me’‘ is a pitifully low bar to clear, so it’s a blessed relief to find that Shaggy’s follow-up doesn’t go for the same leery sexism and cretinous misogyny. Faint praise, I know. ‘Better than UB40’ should also be easy clearance for any serious reggae track – or so you’d think. Once again, nominative determinism nudges me down the path of calling a Shaggy single cartoonish. But there’s really no other word for his oeuvre, plus he leans into it so heavily himself. I’d say even the dreaded UB40 were looking at this and feeling big about themselves.
‘Angel’ combines the AOR-country melody of ‘Angel Of The Morning’, the soft-rock bassline of Irish number one alumnus ‘The Joker’, and Shaggy’s own gurning take on the dancehall style. It is absolutely less than the sum of its parts, and those are meagre parts to begin with. Rayvon’s sweet, melodic chorus tries to repeat the success of RikRok on ‘It Wasn’t Me’ but ‘Angel’ just sounds schmaltzy. The video has both men eyeing up a range of women while making that comedy-value “ooh, look at the arse on that!” face. Of course, the real arse here is the guy with his name on the record. Shaggy is reggae for people who don’t like reggae but who do like to think of themselves as ‘lads’ or master banterers or what have you. And this was number one in Ireland for a whole month. Think about that.
