Title: Language Barrier

Artist: shirlette ammons

Label: Churchkey/SugarQube

Formats: CD, LP, MP3

Release date: February 5, 2016

shirlette ammons wears many hats (she prefers her name in lowercase): she is a poet, musician, author, and activist. On Language Barrier, ammons’ second album, she also shows her mastery at disrupting musical boundaries.

Language Barrier crosses freely, and frequently, through rock, pop, hip-hop, and folk music, disregarding generic distinctions in favor of an embracing eclecticism. For ammons, this approach to genres is a metaphor for the way humans behave in our everyday lives. She explains, “As a part of the whole Language Barrier concept, I wanted to write an album that explores the ways we love across imposed and implied barriers. In this sense, Language Barrier is an album about love as an act of resistance. I also wanted to approach genre as a ‘barrier’ then break it down.”

Language Barrier feels like a mixtape of ammons’ favorite artists. Following the album’s first track, “Earth (Intro Segue),” she passes the microphone to guest artists—including The Indigo Girls, MeShell Ndegeocello, Sookee, Heather McEntire, and Phil Cook—leaving them to tell the album’s story. ammons even handed over the duty of writing the album’s music to multi-instrumentalist and composer, Daniel Hart.

All of this delegation does not take away from ammons’ goal: by including a large cast of instrumentalists, singers, and producers from a wide-range of genres, she has created a sonic exhibition that makes heads bob, feet shuffle, and, most importantly, reminds us that love has no boundaries.

Reviewed by Douglas Dowling Peach