Customer Reviews

Trojan Box Set: Ska

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

 

 

Listen folks I a have a massive Jamaican music collection. This box set is the finest. There is no way you will dislike. Every feverish song makes you feel like dancin'... feel like jumpin'...
Seriously Trojan has done a great job w/ this set. This is the foundation for all reggae music. A side note, don't bother with the Second Ska Box set.

Peace.

A controversy! Well, I really love good ska. It can be old ska, new ska, bluebeat, rocksteady, whatever... as long as it's good. There are a few good songs on this (maybe more than 10%), but not a lot. Certainly not all "gems." By definition, everything can't be above average and you get everything with Trojan. You may find a few undiscovered nuggets if you take the time to wade through it all. I wish they'd made fewer collections with better songs, but at least they're fairly cheap...

my wife and i have over a dozen trojan box sets and we have never gone wrong. we gave this one to our brother in law for x-mas, we already had it, and he loves it. of course he is a ska fan to begin with, so it was an easy choice. sound is great, box appears ecofriendly, the assortment of tracks is stupendous, and the price is spot on - try some of these box sets out and you will not be sorry!

Much to my frustration, I've bought several of these Trojan theme collections, always hoping the next one will be good. I get suckered in by the neat titles/covers and my eternal quest for good ska and reggae. In general they are of very poor quality, both in terms of the music selections and recording - many songs sound like they were taped from the next room on an old answering machine. (Don't let the "Remastered" description fool you; the recording quality of this one is also quite poor.) You end up with a lot of songs that deserve their obscurity. The Trojan philosophy is definitely one of pumping out as many of these collections as they can, using all the songs they have rights to, regardless of how bad they are. Evidently there are enough people who are tricked into buying - or just can't tell the difference - to make them money. No doubt there is much better old and new ska/reggae available for those with discernment.

Having said all that, this is actually probably the best of the Trojan collections I've bought (I will NOT buy any more). There are at least a few songs that are worth keeping, maybe 10% - altho most of those are ones you'll probably already have if you have any ska at all.

Just so I'm not all negative, for a MUCH better collection of ska music, I'd recommend "Ska Giants." The soundtrack for "The Harder They Come" is also superb - altho probably more reggae than ska. "Jamaican Ska-Kore" is good and "Still Standing" is pretty decent. For a collection from a single band, "Foundation Ska" by the Skatalites is hard to beat... Any of those puts these pathetic Trojan grab-bag collections to shame.

All these songs are absolute gems and anyone who thinks otherwise is either an amateurish "ska-kid" who just wants to hear a sped-up "punk-rock" version of the real raw original, or, worse, is simply deaf.
Trojan has been keeping good music alive for some time now and they deserve our respect for making this mind blowing collection of ska classics available.
The sound quality isn't as great as that of the new No Doubt album certainly, but this is the Louis Armstrong of ska (not the Kenny G); it's not about the slick production, it's about the soul of the music, and these songs have plenty of that.

You know, this collection is much cheaper now than it was when I bought it a few years ago. I grant that I'm no ska expert but I absolutely love this form of music and thought this three disk collection was a joy. I uploaded the CDs onto my computer and often let the compendium roll along as I type. It is true though that the recording quality is not great, but, frankly, I'm not sure why anybody would expect sterling sound from cuts this old. The sound is perfectly acceptable, but, again, I'm kind of financially on the low end of most tech products so it could be that I'm just used to mid-level stuff. Anyway, the highlight here, in my view, was disk 2 with "Miss Jamaica," "Jezebel," and "Phoenix City" all in a row. I could listen to those three all day long. "I'm in the Mood for Ska," "When I Call Your Name," and "Guns of Navarone" are definitely standouts as well. It's a cool, smooth ride of an experience.