Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamdown 1973-1980

Darker than Blue: Soul from Jamdown 1973-1980
Reviewed by Sadie O., 9/29/11
Jamaican covers of American soul songs – some hits, some misses, some very sociopolitical (as were we all back then, but Jamaica was REALLY going through it…), some love songs.
1. 3:09 **bongo flourish, then Memphis soul strut with some serious farfisa action. Nice bass work, too – but not much “reggae” sound.
2. 2:53 ****schweeet! Bird whistles and disco-funk – a Jamaica-fied cover of Kool and the Gang. Yummy!
3. 3:06 ***big chorus of “yeah”, then slow, soulful cover of the classic, with a roots rock reggae groove. Great vocal harmonies.
4. 3:28 ***serious 4/4 plonking with a bit of bubble, fine treatment of a serious sociopolitical number.
5. 3:34 ***slick soul intro, then uptempo bubble, sweet singing with a serious message. Great little break midway through.
6. 3:27 **downtempo, wonderfully raw and primal lament.
7. 3:23 **** super funky soul strut with a nice midtempo skank beat and fine instrumentation. Grunts and wah-wah, ooh yeah.
8. 2:15 **pleasant midtempo bubble, sweet vocals – cover of a Bill Withers tune that was played to death back in the day, though… Cool echo on the vocals midway through earns it a star.
9. 3:02 ***nice midtempo strutting skank, fine vocals – definitely elevates this cover with Jamaicification.
10. 2:07 **midtempo skank with bird chirpies, falsetto vocals, love song.
11. 3:40 **sweet midtempo bubble, lovely vocals by one of the best vocalists in Jamaica in the 70’s, love song.
12. 2:48 **delightfully offkey midtempo shuffle, nice baritone vocals, falsetto backing vocals. Nothing too original sounding, though.
13. 3:38 **very similar to the James and Bobby Purify original – best part is Sly Dunbar’s fine understated and elegant drumming. (For a really great cover of this song see SF’s own Los Mocosos…)
14. 5:40 ****full on roots rock reggae, very swingy groove, fine remake by a great singer. Includes a really nice dub.
15. 2:59 ****downtempo skank, falsetto vocals, serious sociopolitics (Curtis Mayfield cover) – a fine example of 70’s Jamaican soul.
16. 7:00 ***downtempo bubble with lots of great percussion, positivity lyrics (and fine singing), extended version with fine horn section. Gonna put this on my “Legends of Cowbell” compilation…
17. 4:01 ****a classic – Tamlins powerful cover of a Randy Newman (!) song, great Sly and Robbie instrumentation and production, great vocals. Killer total package.
18. 3:52 ***the dancehall DJ version of the previous riddim. Clearly he’s been listening to the Sugarhill Gang, which is pretty funny given that they’d been listening to Jamaican DJs in the first place.