POP STARS **** Great Balls of Fire...

POP STARS **** Great Balls of Fire *** Good Vibrations ** Maybe Baby * Running on Empty

BUNNY WAILER “Liberation.” Shanachie.

** “Liberation” is the long-anticipated “political” album from Bunny Wailer, sole survivor of the original Wailers (Bob Marley and Peter Tosh were the others), who ruled Jamaican music in the ‘60s and established reggae’s spiritual/political thrust. The album has all the trappings of a major statement by Wailer, who has been re-establishing his career internationally in recent years, but the music falls surprisingly flat.

The chief problems: disjointed production and astonishingly lackluster rhythms. Too many songs sound like collections of individual tracks grafted together. Little of “Liberation” has the spring of classic reggae. Several tracks--”Rise and Shine,” “Dash Wey the Vial,” “Serious Thing” and the title cut--are severely undermined by leaden, obtrusive drumming.

Wailer seems snake-bitten here--the better melodies deliver lyrics that aren’t particularly fresh, and the stronger themes are coupled with lackluster hooks that don’t cut through the production problems. Wailer is too much the consummate reggae professional to make an album without some sublime music, but “Liberation” promises far more than it delivers.