Alastor Listens To Reggae [Hazbin Hotel Fanfic]

Alastor Listens To Reggae Chapter 5: Police And Thieves by Junior Murvin

It was once time again for Alastor to retreat to his daily ritual of having a glass of rye. What remained in question was what album Alastor should listen to while having his drink.

Alastor had recently been exploring the reggae genre for the past four nights while on break from jazz. He had been mostly enjoying the genre though there was some clunkers or songs that he didn't appreciate as much.

Alastor had been playing it safe recently by listening to established reggae names such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. But tonight he was in the mood for something new, something fresh.

And with that intention he once again summoned Husk.

"Hello Husker!" Alastor welcomed

"Let me guess, you want me to find you another reggae album to listen to?" Husk grumbled.

"Precisely. I'm in need of some variety Husk. Something that does a new twist on the genre."

"Let's see what I can do," Husk said as he once again put out his smartphone and got to searching.

"Here's a possibility," Husk said. "It's called Police And Thieves by Junior Murvin."

"Ah yes, I love art that examines the line separating crime and law. Whether the law itself has become the thieves that we initially came to it to protect us from. It's such a fruitful topic worth examining through the prism of artistic expression," Alastor exclaimed

"Well hopefully this album will do it for you then," Husk mumbled.

"Ah excellent, thank you once again Husk," Alastor said as he sent Husk back to the bar that he spent the majority of his time at.

With Husk now gone he summoned the album directly onto his record player and set it to play. He took a sip of his rye and waited for the album to show Alastor what it had.

The opening song Roots Train immediately began with excitement, while still keeping the chill undertones that were so endemic to the Reggae genre. The falsetto vocals could have been annoying, but they weren't. Hopefully that was a trend that the album would continue with.

The lyrics pertained to getting on board and joining a train, showcasing a sense of speed that Alastor hoped would continue throughout the album. It immediately signaled a nice needed dose of variety to the reggae genre, which was good considering that the previous album Legalize It by Peter Tosh had gotten repetitive towards the end.

Then came lyrics of needing to be righteous to get on board this train. This meant that this train was surely passing Alastor right by. Another tinge of wistfulness hit Alastor. Often times he felt like an outsider looking in when he was listening to reggae because it was a genre that valued goodness, something that Alastor for sure was lacking. Should he abandon reggae in favor of the decadence of jazz?

There was something oddly appealing about reggae though even if it often called out people like Alastor. A reaching towards something higher than one's current station. Alastor often felt like the odds might be against him and so listening to others tell him to persevere in the face of such uncertainty appealed to him. So he continued to listen even though the makers of these sorts of songs might disapprove of most of Alastor's choices.

Next up was Police and Thieves, a knowingly chill sounding song that was about the collateral damage of skirmishes of crime and law, a yin and yang everyday people are caught up in much to their detriment. The tone of the song was almost unnervingly calm given the subject matter, as if we've become unnaturally calm to a travesty that should be tearing our souls apart. How can we be ok with living in a society that treats law and order the way that we do? Apparently with a disheartening calmness.

The next song on the album was Solomon, one that didn't make Alastor think nearly as much as the previous song. As far as Alastor could tell the song just said that Murvin was smarter than Solomon because he knew the secrets of a woman, so women shouldn't play any tricks on him because of that. The music itself was nice but not overwhelmingly powerful. It did its job, it was nice to listen to but it was far from approaching greatness.

Coming next was the song Rescue Jah Children. Great, another appeal to the Children. You know they're not as innocent as they seem. Anyways it began with standard calls for stopping wars. That's never going to happen. To make matters worse it was a very slow paced song. Gone was the intelligent discordance of Police and Thieves and in its stead was a boringly straightforward song about the children. Alastor couldn't wait for the song to be over, even if the song contained some nice vocalizations and horn playing.

Up next was Tedious, which surely couldn't be nearly as tedious as Rescue Jah Children was. Alastor was met with some nice guitar playing and some cool synths, particularly with the sound effects. Already this was a step up from the previous song.

The lyrics began with religious iconography of Moses, Michael and the Promised Land. After that there was a call to group together build something new. Though Alastor was once again a mostly solitary creature, he did enjoy people watching people coming together to build something greater than themselves. It's how many of his favorite jazz acts began.

Alastor was a bit confused by the lyrics, they seemed to be saying that it's tedious everywhere and so they had to travel to somewhere new to build something to escape the tediousness. Well sometimes song lyrics were just song lyrics, they can be things simply to say. Still Alastor wished there was a bit more clarity with the messaging behind the song.

Unfortunately the song became a bit repetitive after the strong opening. It really looped the same rhythm and melody over and over again. Alastor guessed the intent was to capture the feeling of tediousness but still he got pretty bored with the song. He hoped the next song was a return to form or else he might have to cut this record short.

Then came False Teachin'. The song seemed to be an argument for marijuana over alcohol. At one point Murvin claimed that herb was to soothe the children's mind. Alastor didn't know if Murvin meant children literally, he could've meant like children of god. It'd be amusing if he did mean it literally though. Alastor didn't have much else to add about the song. In fact he was kind of getting bored with the record. He thought he would end it there.

Turning the record off, Alastor couldn't help but be a little disappointed. Some strong beginnings had given way to a mediocre middle-end of the album. He wondered if there were some stronger songs he was missing out on by cutting the record short. Probably but still he wasn't going to listen to the rest of the album to find out.

He wondered if he would continue his dive into the genre of Reggae. Well seeing as Alastor still felt that he should continue with his temporary break from jazz, listening to a few more Reggae albums couldn't hurt. He could always just stop listening an album if it wasn't resonating with him.