Murder Love - Reception

Reception

Upon release, Murder Love met with mixed reviews. Patricia Meschino of Reggae Report praised “Dream” as one of the albums “most satisfying cuts.” She observed, “Here Snow reminisces about his days in Toronto's Allenbury housing project, where he first became acquainted with Reggae through the friendships formed with the many Jamaicans who had moved into his area” and “goes on to describe imagined evenings spent at Kingston's Godfather's nightclub and sessions with the Stone Love sound system.” Heidi Seigmund of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “comparisons to rapper Vanilla Ice were inevitable in '93” but, “aside from being white artists working in black-music genres, the similarities end there.” She went on to observe that “unlike Ice, Snow really is a skilled performer and an exceptional dancehall talent. That's evident on songs like "Anything for You," a buoyant duet with Nadine Sutherland, "Things to Say"--a Bob Marley tribute sampling Bill Withers' "Use Me"--and "Rivertown," a look at a Jamaican ghetto through the eyes of its young residents.”

Chuck Eddy of Spin found Murder Love somewhat indecipherable and a departure from 12 Inches of Snow, writing “slow make out mush replaces the debut’s Algerian-rai/dancehall mix with some lighthearted Marvin Gaye liquid funk,” and “like most reggae toasters, Snow seems to have learned to rap by studying Dick Van Dyke’s ‘hum-diddle-diddle-did-die-hum-diddl-eye’ chimney sweep scat in Mary Poppins. So I can’t guarantee I got the plots of these poems completely right.”