 |
| Track List: 1. 54-46 That's My Number 2. Dr Lester 3. One Eye Enos 4. Alidina 5. Pressure Drop 6. Sweet & Dandy 7. Bam Bam 8. Night and Day 9. Monkey Man 10. Monkey Girl 11. Peeping Tom 12. Gold & Silver 13. Sun, Moon And Star 14. She's My Scorcher 15. Pee Pee Cluck Cluck 16. Do the Reggay 17. If You Act This Way 18. It Must Be True Love 19. Time Tough 20. Funky Kingston Running Time: 62 minutes Released: 2000 |
The first "best of" in this list. A considered "I should widen my exposure in this direction" buy. Reggae is not necessarily a genre I have a huge amount of time for (though there is more than just this album in my library) so this stands out a bit in that regard.
That reminds me of a Meta post I might make in a few entries time about how useless genre-typing can be in music, and therefore why I have refused to use any in the labels. For another time.
I am quite glad most of the tunes are short. As I launch into the listen it strikes me that too long of any one groove here might cause me to lose interest. However if each song is over before the repetitive nature of the backing track gets too old that problem goes away, and there is definitely a magic quality to Toots' voice even if a lot of what he is singing appears to be nonsense on first contact. This feels born of is place and time... it is not sunny here at all and it feels like this album would be better accompanied by a strong sun and lazy day. Alas; 1 of 2 is not sufficient.
I reckon that as the tracks go by I will recognise a lot more musically that I do by name - either from random plays in my history or through exposure in wider media. At the moment though, I find that listening is not prompting much in the way of intelligible thought to commit to type. It is pleasant enough but not engaging me... it feels like maybe there is an element missing in many of the tracks; something to sit over the groove and encourage tuning in rather than tuning out. I cannot quite put my finger on it.
Reading up on their LastFM biography, I had not realised that the Maytals were around for the birth of reggae as a term, if not as a style. Of course, that could be half-truth or outright lie for all I know.
Ah, Bam Bam... this is familiar though I can't think what it is that sampled it, for I am certain it is a sample that I recognise not this rendition. Food for thought; it may annoy me. I suppose I could Google it but I do not like admitting a failure of my recollection when "I'll get it, I just need a moment". Hah!
Night and Day is a very different sound, and hey there is more going on too, or maybe it just seems so because the relative levels are different. Either way it is a much more interesting listen, though paradoxically also less pleasing a track.
Whilst I can see the appeal of this music as an accompaniment to chilling, it does not quite do it for me. Trying to articulate why: the patterns are repeated pretty reliably and consistently. This is great for helping you zone out and lay back. However I personally find that most of the time the strength of the bass (a great plus-point for many fans, I am sure) is just a touch too much for comfort. Meanwhile the staccato nature of the melodies I find to be less conducive to relaxation than a smoother sound that flows over me. That would be fine if it encouraged an "active" attention in that chilling - but as mentioned above, in most tracks here there is not enough going on in those melodies to make my ears stand to attention. This deconstruction is more about what I look for in a relaxation tune than a critique of the style and it goes some way to explaining why this listen is not really working for me. I suppose the other side of that is that I am not even trying to relax, really, since I am typing this. Maybe I should leave the keys for a bit.
I think I picked the wrong time to do that... the chicken crowing at the start of Pee Pee Cluck Cluck (what were they thinking?) was an unpleasant call to attention. ... Nah, sitting back is not helping; wrong music/wrong mood to relax - though It Must Be True Love is much more suitable for that.
I do not expect to clear Toots and the Maytals from my library. I think that if I was to hear the odd tune now and again I would appreciate it more than now, listening to 20 back-to-back. I do not dislike it, I just do not find an hour of it either stimulating or relaxing. I can hear the differences between each song well enough (and for that it is certainly better than, say, The 5th Exotic) but there is a sameness to proceeding through this collection that transcends that and that I find hard to communicate.
That trend is bucked a little bit at the end of the album somehow - I think it may be down to more recognisible songs - but not enough to dispel the overall impression.
I am quite glad most of the tunes are short. As I launch into the listen it strikes me that too long of any one groove here might cause me to lose interest. However if each song is over before the repetitive nature of the backing track gets too old that problem goes away, and there is definitely a magic quality to Toots' voice even if a lot of what he is singing appears to be nonsense on first contact. This feels born of is place and time... it is not sunny here at all and it feels like this album would be better accompanied by a strong sun and lazy day. Alas; 1 of 2 is not sufficient.
I reckon that as the tracks go by I will recognise a lot more musically that I do by name - either from random plays in my history or through exposure in wider media. At the moment though, I find that listening is not prompting much in the way of intelligible thought to commit to type. It is pleasant enough but not engaging me... it feels like maybe there is an element missing in many of the tracks; something to sit over the groove and encourage tuning in rather than tuning out. I cannot quite put my finger on it.
Reading up on their LastFM biography, I had not realised that the Maytals were around for the birth of reggae as a term, if not as a style. Of course, that could be half-truth or outright lie for all I know.
Ah, Bam Bam... this is familiar though I can't think what it is that sampled it, for I am certain it is a sample that I recognise not this rendition. Food for thought; it may annoy me. I suppose I could Google it but I do not like admitting a failure of my recollection when "I'll get it, I just need a moment". Hah!
Night and Day is a very different sound, and hey there is more going on too, or maybe it just seems so because the relative levels are different. Either way it is a much more interesting listen, though paradoxically also less pleasing a track.
Whilst I can see the appeal of this music as an accompaniment to chilling, it does not quite do it for me. Trying to articulate why: the patterns are repeated pretty reliably and consistently. This is great for helping you zone out and lay back. However I personally find that most of the time the strength of the bass (a great plus-point for many fans, I am sure) is just a touch too much for comfort. Meanwhile the staccato nature of the melodies I find to be less conducive to relaxation than a smoother sound that flows over me. That would be fine if it encouraged an "active" attention in that chilling - but as mentioned above, in most tracks here there is not enough going on in those melodies to make my ears stand to attention. This deconstruction is more about what I look for in a relaxation tune than a critique of the style and it goes some way to explaining why this listen is not really working for me. I suppose the other side of that is that I am not even trying to relax, really, since I am typing this. Maybe I should leave the keys for a bit.
I think I picked the wrong time to do that... the chicken crowing at the start of Pee Pee Cluck Cluck (what were they thinking?) was an unpleasant call to attention. ... Nah, sitting back is not helping; wrong music/wrong mood to relax - though It Must Be True Love is much more suitable for that.
I do not expect to clear Toots and the Maytals from my library. I think that if I was to hear the odd tune now and again I would appreciate it more than now, listening to 20 back-to-back. I do not dislike it, I just do not find an hour of it either stimulating or relaxing. I can hear the differences between each song well enough (and for that it is certainly better than, say, The 5th Exotic) but there is a sameness to proceeding through this collection that transcends that and that I find hard to communicate.
That trend is bucked a little bit at the end of the album somehow - I think it may be down to more recognisible songs - but not enough to dispel the overall impression.
No comments:
Post a Comment