Customer Reviews

Strictly the Best 35

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Each and every year (with the exception of one in recent memory) we get treated to some of the most comprehensive, unique and wonderful compilations on the market as reggae fans. Just one trip to your local record store will reveal that reggae houses love releasing compilations, be it because there aren't as many solidified artists who can push an album worldwide from this tiny island or maybe they just love compilations as much as we do; regardless, the reggae shelves are overflowing with a steady diet of mixed artists.

One of the most comprehensive, unique and most wonderful is without a doubt the Strictly the Best compilations. Besides ALWAYS being in a beautiful packaging and standing out from that overflowing shelf, musically it covers a range that no one covers on one compilation. And it always comes in two's, giving the consumer the choice of one or both lover's rock/roots or dancehall.

But typically the lover's rock edition is better.

This year is no different with the word I can best use to describe the lover's rock edition (#36) is 'solid', the word best used to desribe its more outgoing dancehall sister is probably 'steady'. StB #35 suffers ever so slightly from hardly doing anything spectacular, and when it does, it leaves you thinking that the particular track or tracks might belong better on its sister.

There are nice nice songs here, perhaps the album's best dancehall track is Good Over Evil by the young veteran Assassin (would have loved Gully Sitten here tho, hopefully they're saving that one for his album next year), over Dave Kelly's Stage Show riddim, with 'Sassin showing a wicked level of consistency on his recent releases (and I'm still predicting that someday the dancehall game will be his and his alone). Check Sean Paul absolutely locking the flow on his best song in a while the brilliant All Out over the Dem Time Deh riddim; young superstar Idonia also taking on the DtD riddim with his nice and slack Ukku; I'll also give Matterhorn his respect with his best tne that I've heard from the soundman, Goodas over the Gully Slime but the ever improving Mr Peppa ultimately pushes the GS to its limit with his well powerful Gangsta Guerilla.

All that being said, the best song on StB#35 is Nah Bodda Mi by St. Anns (BIGGUP ALL ST ANN'S MASSIVE! myself included) native Perfect. Love Nah Badda Mi, the song is Perfect at his best absolutely losing it over teh course of the song, still getting his point across. Of course you have to check the ridiculously nice Alaine over the Sweat riddim on Wine, one of the best cuts on that riddim and the high-powered combination From Dem Dis with Bounty Killa and Idonia, definitely worth checking several times.

The end gets a little weird however with the ultra talented Jovi Rockwell combining with Courtney John of Fiwi on the annoyingly odd Hey, I like Rockwell and will definitely keep an eye on Jamaica's Nelly Furtado in the future however. Also Sizzla's Sail On with K-Salaam. . . I like this track, I really like this track, however, it has virtually no place on this album and as the last track on the album almost seems like an 'oh we forgot to put a Kalonji track on the album' type of situation. Also mixed in there is a status quo wholly average Everybody Bounce by TOK and Chuck Fenda's nice but already well worn Gash Dem.

Overall, well overall, I'm kind of confused by StB#35, especially at it's end. However, I will recommend this one perhaps to not so keen fans of the music but fans who are truly FANS. You almost have to be a reggae fan to appreciate this one which is not what I would say about too many of the dancehall editions of StB, but this one goes so many places in its 18 tracks, but never really leaves home. So this one is Strictly for reggae fans.

STRICTLY THE BEST VOL. 35/36: Here are the latest entries in VP's long-running STRICTLY THE BEST series. As per usual, the first (VOL. 35) is a selection of dancehall sizzlers, featuring a nice mix of established and upcoming artists, and the second (VOL. 36) is a collection of lovers rockers, clearly intended to be shared with a special someone in a little candlelight - but ends up looking a little lopsided since VOL. 35 is in some ways stronger than VOL. 36. (Right, I'm at odds with Bramoi for once here, but I think it'll all come out in the wash!)

Highlights from the first set include Mr. Peppa's wicked GANGSTA GUERILLA, HOW HIGH from the soon-to break very big Movado, Assassin's instantly infectious GOOD OVER EVIL, the very rude, very good UKKU from Idonia, and Alaine's scorching hot WINE. The veterans get a good look-in as well, with Capleton (his massive HITS PON TOP A HITS), Bounty Killer (HUNTING), Sean Paul (the excellent ALL OUT) and Mr. Vegas (the clean-er version of HOT WUK) all coming pretty much correct. The cherries on top of this cake are Mr. Perfect's big bouncing bomb, NO BADDA ME, Chuck Fender's powerful, not to mention controversial, GASH DEM, and Sizzla, closing out in reflective mood with the nice SAIL ON. Basically, this is a neat and tidy selection, worth a very solid four-stars.

There are two major problems with VOL. 36: 1) Too many of the songs included already showed up on Greensleeves' superior BIGGEST REGGAE ONE-DROP ANTHEMS 2006, and 2) Voicemail's awful cover of MEMORIES BY THE SCORE - the less said, the better. To be fair though, this is really a decent selection, and does include several exclusives - i.e. not included on other collections - the best of which is Morgan Heritage's silky smooth LOVE YOU RIGHT, very closely followed by Roger Robin's sweet old school lovers number FOR LIFE. I also liked Divine Brown's OLD SKOOL LOVE, and Chuck Fender's rather unlikely combination with singer Cherine on COMING OVER. And while they've already been collected elsewhere, contributions from Jah Cure, Richie Spice, Bitty McLean, Gyptian and a convincingly romantic Mr. Vegas are all first class.

Overall, while these are both good collections, especially VOL. 35, I think they're going to struggle in competition with Greensleeves' BIGGEST ONE DROP and DANCEHALL ANTHEMS series (check Bramoi's definitive reviews for more info.). Think about it for a minute: Greensleeves is offering more than twice as many tracks at essentially half the price, while VP is asking us to shell out twice as much for a lot less. That's a pretty poor return in comparison. It would be nice if VP could have just combined VOLS. 35 and 36 into a double-disc, single-price set - but taken on their own merits, I would still recommend either. Here's the maths: four stars for VOL. 35 plus three for VOL. 36, minus two for failing to keep up with the competition, plus one for nice packaging, equals, oh, I don't know, three and a half stars on balance, which I'll have to round up to four. Sight?