Roots Archives Forum

Amen to that!

Reggae artists have very inconsistent musical careers.
All of them have poor recordings alongside golden periods of quality. Is all about the knowledge and research.

Another different matter is the personal taste.
Some people don't like: falsetto vocalists, major or minor chords, love lyrics, cliché lyrics, soul type of vocals, singjays, fast or slow tempos,etc....
I have my pet hates too, some voices I dislike too ( for no apparent "logical" reason)...is just personal taste.

interesting thread:

Horace Andy - yes hit and miss, sometimes terrible, often brilliant.

Leroy Smart - the same as above

Lacksley Castell - don't like that voice

Don Carlos - totally boring imo

Junior Reid - can't stand this voice

Junior Murvin - sometimes really terrible, best tracks maybe roots train and tedious.

Barry Brown - totally overrated but some good tunes.

Delroy Wilson - when his voice was in good shape i would say brilliant, but sometimes ............

Norman Grant - oh please no ...

Heptones - anything except Leroy Sibbles on lead disappoints me.

Linval Thompson - some stand out tracks, but also some terrible wrong and out of tune performances ....


etc ....

I rate them, but sometimes they are definitly overrated.
No disrespect to any artists, cause the are still great.


Aswad

I tried their self titled Album and it's not bad though, but it's No really Killer and doesn't touch me that much. Some good tunes, nothing more.

the congos

big gruop with some really good tunes, but they aren't as brilliant as some people make them. Overrated but still good music.

Bob Marley

His early 70ties stuff with Scratch and the others is awesome. Some of the best Reggae there is. The rest is still good, sometimes very good but not that special. Exodus, Rastaman Vibration, Kaya, COnfrontation -> Don't rate them that much.

Burning Spear

Sad to say that. The man's a legend. He has really good tunes, love Hail Him, or days of slavery...social living is good, too, but in the end he's just one out of many and soemtimes even a bit boring.

informer wrote: Heptones - anything except Leroy Sibbles on lead disappoints me

Mr Do Over Man, We Want It, Can't Hide from jah, Deceivers (78 steppers cut on Black lion), Black Man Memory, Book of Rules, Fe We Time, etc?

I rate Barry LLewelyn lead vocals.

A different perspective (maybe this should be a different thread ).

Are there any highly rated reggae artists who didn't record some poor material throught the years? (even if is only 10% of the total output)

Inyaki wrote:A different perspective (maybe this should be a different thread ).

Are there any highly rated reggae artists who didn't record some poor material throught the years? (even if is only 10% of the total output)

I would offer that the quality of Delroy Wilson & Cornel Campbell has been pretty high given how many sides that they have recorded. Same goes for Freddie McKay, although he didn't release nearly as much as the other two.

But it's like you said earlier, very subjective: a lot of people don't like "Sarge" for the fact it has a lot of covers, but personally I think Delory's singing on this is top-notch, he makes these cover songs his own.

steel pulse,aswad, black slate too name a few

can't get into any polished reggae sound.

haha, people so funny!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry, but some post´s just unbelievable!


mark mantado

I would say that for me Rising son, Chester Coke, Anthoney Madden and maybe Joe Morgan or the Rocktones were quite regular through the years, releasing *mostly* very great stuff.
But they are rare, the people that released mostly crucial stuff.

Generally, those are self produced artists, the producers, studios and bands (as well as the economic pressure) seem to have more influence on the quality of the tunes than the vocalist.

Guidance

norman grant? someone said norman grant?

you sir must be mad!

one love
jah bill