ALBUM: Reggae Lasting
Love Songs
ARTISTE: Various
LABEL: VP Records
RATING: 4 and 1/2 stars
THERE ARE lots of flowers on the cover and insert of VP Records' Reggae Lasting Love Songs (Various Artists, Volume 4), but the bloom of emotion comes from the 16 performers whose voices are presented on the 2004 set.
Sanchez and Ambelique are the only singers with two songs on the compilation, with Morgan Heritage and Marcia Griffiths taking pole position with Best of Me.
At either extreme of the CD's contents are the grit of Junior Kelly doing melodic deejaying in asking Baby Can We Meet and Ambelique covering Curtis Mayfiield's I Loved And Lost, refraining from using a reggae rhythm while setting his sometimes soaring falsetto against a matching saxophone.
Tanya Stephens takes the same approach of sticking to the original arrangement on Dedicated To The One I Love, singing well and adding "I love you baby" and a smooch for a delightful flavouring of her personality on the standard.
Reggae Lasting Love Songs (Various Artists, Volume 4) may be stamped 2004, but many of the songs it contains were long in the public consciousness before making the cut for the set. The album pulls together radio regulars Love You Higher (Benjy Myaz); No More Heartaches and Sha-la-la (both by Sanchez); Only Conversation (Lymie Murray) and I'd Rather (Richie Stephens). There is a healthy dose of cover versions there with some not so well played, but certainly well-made songs.
UPTEMPO
One of these is the uptempo So Who? from Freddie McGregor (so who could ever tell me that I should let you go/right out of my life/when I am trying my best to make things right?). Another is Nana McLean's Promised Land, in which she requests "take me to your promised land" and could that just be Buju's 20-foot divan? Hmmm.
It is not only love of the partner kind, though, and the album begins with Morgan Heritage and Marcia Griffiths paying gentle, heartfelt homage to friendship with Best of Me (the 'Heritage' singing, if you are a friend in need/I'll be a friend indeed/I will be there for you", and Marcia Griffiths confirming with "the kind of love/is love a friend can trust for true/no matter what/this love will never turn on you).
Love, it seems these days, is rarely considered complete in some quarters without a good blow and Dean Fraser provides an excellent saxophone puff and production work on So Who, sung by Freddie McGregor.
Other producers on the album include Bobby 'Digital' Dixon, Lloyd and Michelle Campbell, Benjy Myaz and the triple team of Sly, Robbie and Gitsy.
Track listing
1. Best of Me (Morgan Heritage and Marcia Griffiths)
2. Love You Higher (Benjy Myaz)
3. So Who? (Freddie McGregor)
4. No More Heartaches (Sanchez)
5. Come Back Home (Cocoa Tea)
6. I'd Rather (Richie Stephens)
7. Baby Can We Meet
(Junior Kelly)
8. Sha-la-la (Sanchez)
9. I Could Fall In Love (Fiona)
10. Lonely Tear Drops (Ambelique)
11. Heaven In Your Eyes
(Glen Washington)
12. Dedicated To The One I Love (Tanya Stephens)
13. When You Are Lonely
(Mikey Spice)
14. Promise Land (Nana McLean)
15. Where Do I Fit In
(Kashief Lindo)
16. Only Conversation (Lymie)
17. I Loved and Lost (Ambelique)
Mel Cooke
