After a two-year hiatus from releases,
Fire Ball's sixth album,
Don't Look Back, found the Japanese reggae collective right back in their comfort zone, with entirely modern reggae (assisted by the Mighty Crown sound system) that comfortably moves between dancehall thumping, U.S.-influenced R&B inflections, to roots reggae. The album is a little unusual for Japanese reggae simply for its trueness and Jamaican forms rather than syncretism with J-pop, but the result is a very strong album. ~ Adam Greenberg