Soca to the rescue

Above all, it is a testimony to this island nation’s creativity.

Amid all the pain — headlines screaming of violence, torment and unspeakable crime — comes a glimmer of hope in soca songs that reflect how deep we are often willing to dig to connect to our history, our culture and our music.

Yes, there are nonsensical offerings that scream vulgarity and senselessness. But there are wise offerings as well. This year, several soca songs prove that what is good and decent and beautiful in this country will prevail. Just look around. Machel Montano’s Wake Up offers a melodic, suggestive, sexy song that celebrates women.

“Gyul, you are the best thing to wake up to,” Montano sings. It is a welcome message.

Bunji Garlin sings, “We are the sound of 100,000 coming down de road. We are the vibration you feel when the music loads,” in his Big, Bad Soca. This breathtaking image of an army of masqueraders chipping down the road overcomes all the crude images of Carnival.

Bunji knows that wining still possesses that historical sense of rebellion. Brassy, staccato horn lines conjure up Shadow’s music.

Once considered an outsider, Bunji has claimed a space that speaks to those on the periphery of Carnival.

Carnival is a bridge from the past to the future with this moment in time the place to celebrate that journey. No song shows that more than D Journey (Make It) sung by Devon Matthews & Ella Andall.

Every time we lament the empty music of Carnival, some artiste teams up with a musical icon from the past to create a moving, spiritual soca that inspires youth while offering a sense of nostalgia for older Carnival fans.

With its Orisha beat and commands to ring de bell, D Journey and Andall demonstrate how to catch the power spiritually and musically. The message is simple: “Even though the road is long no matter what, I know I gonna make it.” This beautiful musical tribute captures the nation’s sense of spirituality and creates a bridge between the sacred and the profane.

Jaiga TC’s cover of Christopher Tambu Herbert’s 1989 Road March Free Up serves as a refreshing reminder of the melodious songs of bygone Carnivals when soca possessed strong narratives that told a Carnival story.

Everyone just wanted to have a good time.

In Jaiga’s version of Free Up, our Carnival hero is jumping in an Uber to get to the fete, and he’s singing the whole way, “I just want to free up... I want to jump with a finger pointing in the air.” Not everything has to be about raising your hand, but if you must raise your hand, as David Rudder sings, “never surrender.” Rudder’s Carnival 2017 offering, Welcome to Trinidad, offers scintillating satire, clever double entendre and tongue-incheek humour all wrapped up in a smooth lavway to conjure up ghosts of calypso past and the spirit of Carnival present.

It is a refreshing new look at Trinidad — an updated version of Rudder’s stinging commentaries like The Savagery from his Beloved album. This time, Rudder cleverly traps listeners in their own prejudices as he sings, “Welcome to the place, where all we talk about race.” But it’s not the race you’re thinking about. It’s “…race to the rum shop, race to the mas camp…” Look around and you will surely note h o w m u c h s o c a saves us from the bad and the ugly that perm e a t e s society.