Cast as the soundtrack to feature film documentary I Know I’m Not Alone documenting his time in Iraq, Michael Franti and Spearhead have delivered an album that is politically direct and furiously determined.

Of course, it’s nothing if not a leftist diatribe, but you’d expect that of someone who once claimed that television was the drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation. Where back in the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and early Spearhead days Michael Franti was a furious rhymer, these days he delivers everything in a vague reggae sing-song.

It’s strange, as if there was ever any album that screams out for a hip-hop direction it’s Yell Fire! – politically charged, it should be as furious as Public Enemy and, indeed, Michael Franti himself used to be. But that in itself is one of its strength; where others might batter the listener over the head with their politics, Yell Fire! delivers with hooks where others would use battering rams.

“I Know I’m Not Alone” sounds more like Coldplay than Spearhead, while Pink performs backing vocals on “One Step Closer to You”. If it makes for a strange combination, it works well – like Franti, she’s another artist who’s usurping from the inside the belly of the (music industry) beast. The only surprise guest missing from Yell Fire! is the Dixie Chicks, who have also been on a surprisingly political bent recently.