Energy god Elephant Man's Let's Get Physical makes it easy to believe the dancehall star has definitely lost some volts.

The 13-track album, released earlier this week and Ele's first under Sean 'P Diddy' Combs' Bad Boy label, is okay but not electrifying.

Physical features a plethora of collaborations that don't always work to its advantage, since in parts the album is lost in translation and at times it sounds like Ele is on support vocals rather than the featured artiste.

Still, it's enough of a feat to have his name on the same liner notes - albeit an amazingly low budget presentation - as the ultra cool, music/fashion mogul Diddy.

The album opens with Drop Dead, inspired by the popular dance of the same name which is reported to have its origins at Flanker Fridays out west. It's true Elephant Man style, complete with vulgar references and step-by-step dance instructions.

And of course, no dancehall album would be whole without an ode to the video light and Ele highlights the 'walk out' phenom on Dem Nuh Ready, with its catchy four-bar hook that should sound superb when blared through 15-foot high speakers. Skimpily clad dancing girl atop and all!
The album moves from hardcore dancehall, however, to the kind of bubble gum pop that makes young R&B crooner Chris Brown shine on the sweaty, sexy Feel The Steam (track 3).

The follow-up track features Brown's lady love Bajan beauty Rihanna on Throw Your Hands Up. Though the track is urging females to "lose control" it fails to convey the feeling of abandon and the sheer exhilaration of killing all inhibitions.

Part antics give way to reefers and raids on Five-O featuring Haitian ambassador Wyclef Jean and the ever-trite ad libs of Diddy (think Bad Boy, uh, huh) on the into and outro. Clef's string plucking (guitar) makes it less dancehall and more reggae. And Ele's vocals seems misplaced as he fails to truly establish that it's his record rather than a long lost track from Wyclef's recent Carnival.

Jump, featuring Pro Tools whiz Swizz Beatz, somewhat redeems it all and the album begins to once again feel like something Ele had a hand in. It gets even better though on the more hip-hop stylings of booty-shaking club banger Back That That Thing On Me (Shake That) featuring his fellow Bad Boy and one-hit-wonder Mario Winans (I Don't Wanna Know, 2005). Other 'rump-rockers' include Sweep The Floor (With It) and Body Talk (track 11). The latter track inspired the title since it features new-comer Latina songstress Kat DeLuna sampling Olivia Newton-John's 1980s song; and the virtually unknown female rapper Jha Jha, who gets kudos for holding her own and 'spitting' with a flow reminiscent of the late Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopez.

But the collabos aren't always with international stars (although names like Busta Rhymes, Swizz Beatz, Yung Jock and Shaggy pop up, some more than once) Ele recorded alongside the ever-fresh lyricist Assassin and Demarco of Fallen Soldier fame.

Our World, featuring the latter is an apt jeep-beat for summer and is perhaps Ele and Demarco's homage to the braggadocio and gangster swagger of life on The Rock.
Those themes continue throughout Who Wanna produced by Swizz Beatz.

It's a 'crazy' riddim that's over-the-top with killer lyrics delivered with the intensity and energy in true energy god fashion. What's more, there's a catchy hook that firmly cements the idea that the break is over, Ele is in the building!

The album closes with a bonus track Five-O (Remix), which could have easily replaced the original with its all-star cast.
Speaking to Splash last month, the artiste had said that it was difficult for him to "crossover with a straight dancehall album".

"We haffi put something in there fe everybody. so you got the club joints, you got me and Chris Brown 'cause that's what my teenage fans want and yuh got the hardcore dancehall for my original fan base."

The industry has anticipated this album for the better part of six months and Ele claimed then, that, the root cause of the delay was contractual tie-ups. Now it's out and though it's not the freakish, circus-esque delivery everyone is used to, the eclectic Let's Get Physical is not altogether disappointing, but it's fair to expect more when a local artiste is rolling with the big, bad boys!

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