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| Track List: 1. Bongo Herman - Chairman of the Board 3. Prince Buster - Girl Why Don't You Answer 4. Barrington Levy - Under Me Sensi 5. Lloyd Robinson - Cuss Cuss 6. King Tubby - King Tubby Dub 7. Dennis Alcapone - Cassius Clay 8. Honey Boy Martin - Dreader than Dread 9. Toots and the Maytals - 54 46 Was My Number 10. General Degree - Pot Cover 11. Paris Connection - Who's That Lady 12. U-roy - Stick Together 13. Lyn Taitt - Soul Stew 14. Granville williams Orchestra - Hi life 15. Cimarons - We Are Not the Same Running time: 44 minutes Released: 2000 |
A compilation which I can only assume must have been a gift at some point. Missing track 2 (Tenor Saw & Buju Banton -
Ring The Alarm Quick) for some reason. Ho-hum.
54 46 Was My Number becomes the first track to feature twice in this play-log, which is probably going to be the most noticeable thing about this post.
I suspect casualties here before I begin, and the first track confirms that will be the case. It is just not my cup of tea. I am hopeful of find something worth keeping in the midst of this somewhere though.
I am not sure that I can find anything interesting to add about this - good nor bad. I have already spilled a few of my feelings on reggae when listening to Toots and the Maytals, so I do not want to re-cover that ground. My opinion of the music is not that low so there are no interesting rants, negative dissection or similar to share, and I am not positively enough engaged to generate commentary. That said, I quite like Under Me Sensi - it presents with a more engaging style and whilst it is a little too repetitive for my case, the "woah" vocal has a charm.
When that song ends, I get a surprise. The ordering of tracks in my library is not as per the list in the caption here (which was pulled from Amazon) but I am not about to rearrange it now. Maybe the tags got screwed somehow.
I am pleasantly surprised by what I am hearing though, and 5 tracks in, only 2 are for the chop. 54 46 will get added to this (I can no reason to keep a second version) but the album is shaping up better than expected. I recognise King Tubby Dub from plays that came up on library shuffle previously and it is another keeper. I think the bass is slightly lighter than on most of the Jamaican music I have been exposed to over the years, and it makes for a more pleasant sound in my book. Personal taste, and all, but apparently enough for me to have previously "loved" it on LastFM. I cannot say the same for Dreader than Dread, which I just find dull, or Cassius Clay which feels bland somehow for a track about one of history's greatest sporting icons.
I suspect casualties here before I begin, and the first track confirms that will be the case. It is just not my cup of tea. I am hopeful of find something worth keeping in the midst of this somewhere though.
I am not sure that I can find anything interesting to add about this - good nor bad. I have already spilled a few of my feelings on reggae when listening to Toots and the Maytals, so I do not want to re-cover that ground. My opinion of the music is not that low so there are no interesting rants, negative dissection or similar to share, and I am not positively enough engaged to generate commentary. That said, I quite like Under Me Sensi - it presents with a more engaging style and whilst it is a little too repetitive for my case, the "woah" vocal has a charm.
When that song ends, I get a surprise. The ordering of tracks in my library is not as per the list in the caption here (which was pulled from Amazon) but I am not about to rearrange it now. Maybe the tags got screwed somehow.
I am pleasantly surprised by what I am hearing though, and 5 tracks in, only 2 are for the chop. 54 46 will get added to this (I can no reason to keep a second version) but the album is shaping up better than expected. I recognise King Tubby Dub from plays that came up on library shuffle previously and it is another keeper. I think the bass is slightly lighter than on most of the Jamaican music I have been exposed to over the years, and it makes for a more pleasant sound in my book. Personal taste, and all, but apparently enough for me to have previously "loved" it on LastFM. I cannot say the same for Dreader than Dread, which I just find dull, or Cassius Clay which feels bland somehow for a track about one of history's greatest sporting icons.
In my minds eye Pot Cover would be so much better if it was actually a cover of Pot by The Phoenix Foundation (from Buffalo) - that would be one hell of an interesting song to see done in different styles but keeping the charm.
It seems that the Amazon listing even gets a track name wrong. "Soul Stew" should be "Soul Food". I feel that I should change this, but if I do I would also feel compelled to sort out the ordering too and frankly I cannot be bothered with that faff so I will instead leave the error there.
As the album draws to a close I feel that actually it worked in general. Compilations are actually pretty decent windows on styles when you are not familiar with them, and shifting from artist to artist tends to make each track sound different. Comparing this listen to 20 Massive Hits it comes out favourably, as the Maytal's best of ended up feeling much more samey. I have kept 8 tracks in the end, discarding 6. I am happy with this paring down.
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