Words by Jesse Serwer—
In January, Major Lazer set sail—that’s not flowery language, they literally set sail—on a five-stop Caribbean tour, traveling from Jamaica to Tortola to St. Maarten to St. Croix to Puerto Rico aboard a boat called the Molly Roger. Naturally, they documented the highlights (plus Diplo ironing and a cameo from Pootie Tang) in a video, which has been set to “Jah No Partial,” the Johnny Osbourne-featuring second single from their upcoming and once-again postponed sophomore album, Free the Universe.
Along with the video comes the latest leak from Free the Universe, now set for release April 15. Not yet officially released, “Jessica” comes to us in the form of a radio rip from DJ Annie Mac‘s BBC Radio 1 show, which premiered the track Sunday night. The tune, which features Vampire Weekend vocalist Ezra Koenig, might be the strangest of the four songs which have thus far emerged from the project. Starting with a deceptively simple rocksteady groove, the song takes several twists and turns as Koenig’s vocals grow more playful, and ultimately quite trippy, thanks to a combination of his own weirdness and some pitch manipulation. And in case you were wondering, that’s the riddim from Carl Dawkins’ “Satisfaction” you’re hearing, as our own Erin MacLeod established with some help from riddim-ologist Jah Mikes,