Customer Reviews

Red

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Several years ago Rolling Stone magazine ranked this album better than any of Bob Marley's in a list of the 100 best albums of all time. That is debatable. But this CD rightly deserves the credit it's due, and shouldn't be overlooked. The themes deal with everyday life in Jamaica. Sly and Robbie are at their best laying down tight rthyms. Sensimilla is along the same lines as this. Both are crucial reggae CDs.

Just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in - this is one of my favorite reggae bands and RED is one of their best. What puts this reggae above many others is the masterful pop craftsmanship and the first-rate melodies. If you're looking for some raw roots reggae, you might want to look elsewhere. Not only is RED great reggae, it's expertly produced pop music. The standout tracks are clearly "Sponji Reggae" and "Utterance," but the whole record is most worthy.

An interesting side note: "uhuru" is Swahili for "freedom," so the band's name means "black freedom."

FOCUS! This album is the Revolver of Reggae. Do not even think twice. If you buy 10 reggae albums in your life this must be one. Utterance I feel is one of the top 5 best reggae songs ever recorded. The album is superb. The next Uhuru album you would buy would be Sinsimilla. And, then you move on to other bands as they were not able to maintain the sincerity of the sound much beyond Red.

One of the best reggae albums ever. Rose was at the peak of his form in 1981. His phrasing, emotion is incomparable. Extra tracks? From hearing the samples, there is only one: "Trodding" is the dub version of "Rockstone".

Anyone who likes reggae music should own this album. For the casual fan looking to expand beyond Marley, this is one of the best places to start. Few if any albums are as pure gold as this wonderful album. The playing is inspired, the singing beautiful, the production clean and crisp. Whenever I listen to it I ask myself why I ever bother listening to anything else. Buy it; love it; then get GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER.

While this album is one of Black Uhuru's best, I don't consider it THE best("Sinsemilla" get's that honor to me). But it is definately one of the first ones any reggae collection needs in it. If you want a good Black Uhuru album you can't go wrong with Red, just don't forget to buy "Sinsemilla" also.

It's one fine compilation from the best reggae band as far as I'm concerned. Dem rootsmen are definately lyrically blessed. Definately recommended for all rootsmen and empresses out there. One Love.

With Red, Black Uhuru pressed on the accelerator a little harder while blazing down that new road. Sinsemilla is when the band first turned off unto this new road. Sinsemilla might of obeyed the speed limit, but Red was going places, fast. Kinda like, Sly and Robbie were now using Black Uhuru to drive out their musical demons. Best part is Micheal Rose, Puma and Duckie never turned this dirrection into a dead end. Black Uhuru was a great band that was getting even better. A must own

Black Uhuru is one of the best reggae groups since Bob Marley, and in fact were the first group to win an Grammy for reggae when the new category for Reggae was created in 1984. Nationally acclaimed, the group has a reggae beat all their own.
I highly recommend any of their albums (or CD's)

This album is great. Sly & Robbie are an incredible duo and are certainly underrated to mainstream music fans. The 'taxi' sound the band ushered in is a welcome deviation from standard one drop drumming. Red has got to be the best, or one of the best Black Uhuru albums. It's rough, hardcore roots with a special blend of electronic instrumentation thrown on top which is always what made black uhuru very unique to me. They're able to put electronics into roots music and have it still be roots, and that's very impressive. The obvious standout track is "Youth of Eglington", one of their very best songs and a song that will go down as one of the finest in roots reggae. Followed by the magnificent "Sponji Reggae", the first Black Uhuru song I heard, and a song that really entranced me. Black Uhuru is just so peculiar, they have such a unique sound even within a genre that is known for repeating itself endlessly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's garbage though. Sly & Robbie can be depended to put awesome drums and bass on any songs though, and the other musicians of Black Uhuru are decent enough. Although I love Mykal Rose on alot of albums, and his voice and style is very distinguished, he's unfortunately not the best lyricist and can kinda babble on off-key with slack rhymes which are just *not very interesting* - I look back at the simplistic, yet *SOLID* words of bob marley and I'm left dissapointed by what Mykal has to say. He has the voice but he is just not the best lyricist and it makes alot of his music suffer almost in a way. It's not even him using patois, just ways he says certain things, you'd never make out unless you were born in jamaica or read a lyric booklet. Puma Jones..fine back-up singer, but for some reason, I always found her voice to be really, really weird sounding. Overall though an awesome album deserving of 4 stars, a star taken off for Mykal's not-the-best lyrics, and occasionally the band can't live up to thier cohorts Sly & Robbie. An interesting tidbit - you can totally tell UB40 directly ripped off Sly's drums on "Puff she Puff" for UB40's "Cherry oh Baby".