Alastor Listens To Reggae [Hazbin Hotel Fanfic]

Alastor Listens To Reggae Chapter 9: Upaya by Bird City Revolutionaries

While pouring his nightly glass of rye, Alastor once again summoned Husk back to his room.

"I want to hear another classic from the reggae genre, particularly from an artist that I haven't yet heard from," Alastor commanded to Husk.

"Sure thing," Husk said as he instinctively looked up another reggae album for Alastor's nightly listen. "Here's one called Night Nurse by Gregory Isaacs. It's supposed to be a classic."

"All righty then, let's have a listen shall we?" Alastor said as he began to send Husk back to the bar. Afterwards he summoned a copy of the record onto his player and set it to play.

The titular song of the album, Night Nurse, began to play. From the get go it was much more synth based than previous reggae songs. It also featured electronic drums. Though Alastor preferred more bygone sounds, he had in his heart a certain appreciation for electro jazz so Alastor decided to continue listening.

However after listening to the song for a bit, he found that he disliked it. He found the lyrics unengaging and the song shockingly repetitive. The album was off to a bad start in Alastor's opinion. It would have to improve remarkably for Alastor to continue listening to it.

Which it didn't. The second song, Stranger In Town, also suffered from much of the same problems. The bass playing was kind of nice, kind of. But god what a boring, repetitive album this was turning out to be. It was time to put an end to such a dispiriting experience.

Stopping the record before two songs were even finished and his rye barely touched, Alastor wondered what he would do next. Normally when he disliked a reggae album he would put on something by Bob Marley the next night, but for whatever reason he did not feel like doing that. So he summoned a surprised Husk back to his room.

"My dear Husk, I'm afraid that album was displeasing to me," Alastor coolly stated.

"Oh uh sorry to uh hear that," said a worried Husk. Was there going to be a punishment for poorly choosing an album for tonight?

"Oh no need to worry as I'm sure that you'll find a more than suitable replacement album for me," Alastor replied calmly, though there was an implication of retribution if Husk did not find a good enough album.

Husk's nerves were running rampant as he searched again for a better album for Alastor. A certified classic of the reggae genre had just failed Husk, how was he supposed to trust that the next album would be up to Alastor's standards? He had read that Night Nurse was a sure thing!

Husk searched and searched for what he hoped was not an impatient Alastor. But where could he find a trusted source that would steer him in the clear? Should he search for another so called classic, or should he try to find a less well known album with some good reviews?

"I'm waiting Husk," Alastor said threateningly.

Well that was it. Time to try a Hail Mary.

"There's one called Upaya by this band called Bird City Revolutionaries. I don't know that much about it but it might be to your tastes... Hopefully," Husk sputtered out.

"Hmmmmm well there's only one way to find out," Alastor replied as he summoned the album onto his record player, this time keeping Husk in his room as he set it to play

Husk fretted. The opening notes didn't sound very reggae. Epic maybe, like they were gearing up for something, but what? Would reggae come out, or would something entirely different precede? Time would only tell.

Then the song Reset Perspective came on and finally there was reggae goodness, thank god. Husk wiped his brow. It was a damn good reggae song, at least as far as Husk could tell. He turned to Alastor's face, it looked pleased.

The guitar on the song kept the reggae groove as the drums provided a good and steady rhythm. Then the horns came in to add a bit of spontaneity to the song. Husk relaxed after seeing an even greater sign of satisfaction cross Alastor's face.

"Very good Husk. I believe this will be an acceptable choice for tonight's music," Alastor said before sending Husk back to the bar.

Now completely alone again, Alastor took a moment to take in the song. It was a bit different than a standard reggae song, but Alastor couldn't exactly articulate what made it so unique. Were the lyrics a bit more sing-y? Was one of the guitars a bit more adventurous in their musical explorations? No matter, what was really important was that Alastor was enjoying the song.

The next song, The Human Code, began to play. It opened with some acapella and some thankfully not too ostentatious echo effects on the vocals. Then a much more standard but still good reggae tune began to play. One of the guitar's playing complemented the vocals quite well.

Alastor though was not too engaged by the lyrics though. There was something about this being the time to learn to fly together or something metaphorical like that? Alastor didn't know what the lyrics were trying to communicate. Whatever, at least the music was good.

Up next was the song Uncertainty. The drums and base line kind of reminded Alastor of Walking On The Moon by The Police. Thankfully there were enough differences for this song not to feel like a retread. Alastor generally liked the song as it had a good mood. However it was nothing to write home about. But hey, not every song can be a classic.

In what was unfortunately becoming a pattern for this album though, Alastor felt very disconnected from the lyrics. There didn't seem to be any organizing principle to the lyrics, and it wasn't in a good way, like that one Buju Banton song that had felt disorganized precisely because there was so much Banton wanted to get out. Instead the lyrics just felt all over the place in a manner that felt indecisive, as if the musical group couldn't come up with anything that they wanted to say.

Still the music was good. Alastor hoped that the lyrics would improve but if they didn't he could live with that.

After that was just a simple prelude to the next song, The Root. The prelude was just some drumming, some mild synths and what sounded to be a guitar put through some sort of filter. It was a fine introduction to the next song.

Then the main course, The Root, began to play. It was another good, if standard, reggae track. The lyrics were about standing up and finding the root of the problem. Alastor could appreciate a good standing up song. However the song failed to point out what any of these actual problems were besides general topics of education and violence, which made it feel nondescript. It was a fine song but it had none of the power of passion of something like Get Up, Stand Up.

Next up was a song titled No Race Superior To Another. Even for someone who had once felt the pangs of racism before he was sent to the post racial dystopia that is Hell, Alastor found the lyrics to be ridiculously heavy handed. So heavy handed that they kept him from enjoying the actual music, which was again solid if nothing special reggae music. He felt that the band had a lot to like about them but that they desperately needed a new lyricist. At least there was some nice chaotic drumming at the end.

Afterwards played the song Know Better. Alastor was done thinking about about the lyrics of this album. This song had similarly unengaging lyrics and so from now on he would be focusing on the actual music. He liked the electric guitar playing, it gave off a very cool tone and had enough nuances to capture Alastor's attention.

Still Burning was the next song to play. It opened with a pretty cool bassline. The horns and bass complimented each other pretty well, and the guitar found plenty of spaces to shine in. Alastor just wished there wasn't as much focus given to the vocals, given that he had checked out from paying attention to the lyrics.

Finally the closing song 400 Miles From Madness began to play. It opened with a nice backing synth, some good guitar playing and some on point high hat playing. Unfortunately the vocals had to enter the picture. Fortunately Alastor found that he could just pay attention to the guitar playing instead, which he found plenty to enjoy in.

Then the album came to a close. Alastor found that he had enjoyed the album even if the lyrics were highly detrimental to his opinion of it. There was thankfully enough in the music besides the vocals for Alastor to like. Still though, the lyrics were quite poor and that did dampen his opinion of the album. At the very least he had gotten through the album though, which was more than he could say about Night Nurse and some other reggae albums he had tried listening to but stopped during his dive into the genre.