Dub Syndicate mastermind Style Scott’s solid percussion and Adrian Sherwood’s seamless mixology keeps roots dub alive and grounded, not flying off to melt in the sun. No Bed of Roses‘s songs all maintain a steady cadence with bright keyboards, locked rhythms, and a slew of crooners who remind you that Babylon is more naked than ever with a Caesar in the White House. Given that protest songs dwell here, the instrumentation is a little too sun-kissed to articulate the rage. The exception is “Adam & Eve,” in which a shaman connects empire-lust with original sin through a napalm-smoked haze of echoes.