Addis Pablo ADD

Review

Album Review: Xana Romeo - The Divine Blueprint & The Devine Dub

01/09/2026

by Jessica Knight

To Divinity and Beyond

Xana Romeo is movin’ n groovin’ in multiple directions on her third album accompanied by her long-time collaborator, Jallanzo The Dub Wizard. Together they provide a lit-up listening journey.

Xana Romeo’s latest album, The Divine Blueprint, is being released simultaneously with a Dub edition. The vinyl version comes as double album, while the digital versions are separate albums. The project contributes to Roots music in the wake of her father, Max Romeo, who died last year. Whilst she’s not afraid to test her own musical boundaries, what keeps her rootical is the close attention that she pays to Max’s catalogue. That, and her creative partnership with Omar ‘Jallanzo’ Johnson, aka The Dub Wizard.

The overall feel of Jallanzo’s production is indeed divine as he teams up with two of his former Dubtonic Kru bandmates, Stone on bass and Luke Dixon on keys, to launch this latest project to another galaxy. Guiding Star Orchestra’s brass contributions twinkle on Jallanzo’s meticulously crafted riddims. Xana is surrounded by an excellent team. Songs like The Righteous Call and Mother, which praise the balancing forces of Jah and ‘Mother Earth / Mother Nature’ respectively, fulfill the well-established purpose of Roots: to remind the listener that ‘the sun shines for all not just one’, which is the opening message on the title track.

Will The Sun Come Out Today? is a favourite on The Divine Blueprint, not only because it answers its own question upfully, through the voice of collaborator Micah Shemaiah responding, ‘Sun haffi deh-deh’. This tune blends a unique contrast of a child-like, simplistic view of the world in the last line of the chorus (from which the title is taken) combined with a sophisticated layering of meaning as the verses progress. The interplay between the male and female vocals keeps the tune dynamic; Dixon’s chatty keys in the interlude might as well be considered as a third voice.

Xana is as lyrically layered as her father. She deserves an audience on her own merit, and yet her references to Max means one must mention his influence. When she and her brother, Azizzi Romeo, sing on Bloodline ‘royally speaking / we are the children’, she’s doubling up on the general Rastafari reference to lineage (‘daughter of Menin’) to possibly also nod to their Reggae royalty roots. Bloodline folds personal family history into Jamaica’s broader history, which is a valuable contribution. It also showcases the siblings’ vocals, each of which are as rich as their heritage. Both switch between smooth to staccato singing, rap to regular style, pausing, slowing and speeding up in a way that teases out a masterful tension-and-release element.

Folie à Deux is about escaping the madness of an ill-advised coupling set to Jallanzo’s bopping riddim. It doesn’t appear on the dub version of Divine Blueprint, (Divine Dub), but as a bonus track on the digital. Perhaps electro-funk doesn’t dub so easy as the ten more rootsy tracks, and yet, whilst Jallanzo’s licks are as dub-a-licious as expected from The Dub WIzard, Folie à Deux is one song I’d love to hear extended and reworked with stripped-back lyrics. Especially notable here (although it’s present across all the vocals) is that you hear every word crisp as an ice chip – the product of excellent production, mastering, and Xana’s perfected diction.

Another reference to her father is Message For You, which was originally titled Rich People when it appeared on the Jah Shaka album with Max Romeo, Fari - Captain of My Ship, in 1992. Xana’s cover (the only one on the album) is sung over a Luke Dixon riddim, which then becomes Dub Message as Dixon borrows the dubbing controls from Jallanzo to further re-work this track on Divine Dub. Xana’s creativity comes to the fore here, where the slick digital quality of a playfully-inserted crackling fire sample will tickle your follicles. This sample updates the nostalgic feel of how she forms the phrasing on the word ‘Repent’. This is a song that knows its history, and every aspect of the composition is a tribute to old-school Reggae freshened up for the modern listener.

In its entirety, The Divine Blueprint opens at sunrise and ends with a sunset after a productive day during which the duo ‘walk with the message and share it’ as Jallanzo pipes up to cushion Xana’s already plush vocals on Carry On, the song that defines the intention of the album. Track 11 Freedom Songs gets points for the unusual pairing of romance and binghi accomplished on this well-paced, truly ‘sweet song’. As with Folie à Deux, the digital bonus afterparty boogie, Freedom Songs was also let off of the dub treatment – understandably, since here the pace slows and strays far from dub-able realms. Xana knows her way around a ballad just as intricately as the other divergent styles she pulls off, here amply matched by Jallanzo creating an intimate fire-side setting to accommodate Xana’s take on a love song (with an intriguing definition of love as a space that is free from evil). What’s special here is the drum-induced trance that quiets the mind whilst the sweetness of voice and theme hypnotise the heart. See if you experience the same spiralling sensation as you listen with your eyes closed.

Xana’s take on all the usual themes applies multiple curious perspectives to Jallanzo and Dixon’s inventive compositions. She cultivates her own quirky ideas courageously within far-reaching genres. Ok, so the lack of realism in the themes renders the lyrical content idealistic, making some of the messaging trite to my ears. Over All, her first release from the album featuring Max Romeo and Addis Pablo (on melodica) is a near flawless Roots tune that doesn’t quite ring true in today’s landscape (see my write up here on the single release for acknowledgment of all that it does accomplish). ‘They’ might well be ‘poisoning the seas and tamper[ing] with the land’, but it would be nice to hear a touch more of the avant-garde approach applied elsewhere here shaping the political lyrics. As with the vinyl, which contains different mixes to the digital album in general, the digital version of Over All is also a different mix to the original release.

The Divine Blueprint is a perfect balance of homage to the elders, plucky experimentalism, and cool A-F personal style. The appreciation for Roots music legacy is evident throughout – from the musicians that Xana collaborates with (such as Lutan Fyah on The Meek), who never stray from Roots even when other genres might be more lucrative, to the album artwork that features Xana’s daughter (next in line to inherit the musical and Afro-centric blueprint). If you’re looking for lightness in your music, then this album is hardcore sunshine for the ears and Divine Dub is its moonlit counterpart.

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