Roots Archives Forum

On Greensleeves. It's their latest 'reggae legends' box.

Are these albums any good (looks like these are the ones from looking at the tracklisting)?

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I think the first 2 are excellent. The third is very poor. I don't know the 4th.

I don't think the third one is very poor. It has some tracks that are rather great such as the title track and »Na Look Nobody« (is there a dub to this one?). It is a it uneven perhaps ... can't remember was a long time I heard it last. Will pull it out this evening and give it a spin. The second one is a nice album but nothing special. The fourth is incredible (and missing from my collection).

The artwork on 'Nightfall' looks like it really belongs on a heavy metal album cover.

From looking at the track names, it looks as though these four albums are mostly composed of love songs. Is that the case?

Not all lve songs, got some good cultural tracks too.

The first two albums imo are really good and definately worth having, but I hope the sound quality is better than on the original Greensleeves twoofer of those two albums.

Water Pumping is not bad, typical dancehall, from memory the base was a bit too heavy and overpowered the vocal and other instrumentation. However, it does have about 4 good tracks. Its not as bad as 6anbatte states but nowhere near JOs best.

Nightfall is the best of the bunch. I have the "Nightfall Showcase" CD on Munich which is this album plus a few added tracks and it regularly gets an airing.

In all honesty with how much these Reggae Legends box sets cost you cannot go wrong and imo the 4 titles that are included makes it a must have.

Dave

BTW Stick a Bush, I recommend you get the Sugar Minott one too if you havent already purchased it. It too is really goosd and contains 4 albums that have never appeared on CD before

The Sugar Minott box is really good (been listening to a couple of album from it today).

I really hope that they do a Scientist set next. Well, if Greensleeves still have the rights to his stuff (most of it is out of print at the moment) - there was talk of him suing them over ownership and unpaid royalties, wasn't there?

How can you say the 4th is poor? That's absurd! Have you ever heard this one. MAybe you only know it as "In nah disco style" (Cha Cha LP)...or J.O. meets roots radics (Abraham LP- bootleg) but this is definitely just as crucial as the other three. Seems funny to me that this one is included in the greensleeves compilation.
I thought this one was a V.P. / Randy's distribution thing. License must have run out....who knows, maybe junjo also sold this one to greensleeves (illegally) back in the days even though it belong to Linvall. Well, if you don't know, then get to know.

VP now owns Greensleeves so that is no longer an issue.

each of the 4 albums has some killer and some filler.

jahadambom wrote:How can you say the 4th is poor? That's absurd! Have you ever heard this one. MAybe you only know it as "In nah disco style" (Cha Cha LP)...or J.O. meets roots radics (Abraham LP- bootleg) but this is definitely just as crucial as the other three. Seems funny to me that this one is included in the greensleeves compilation.
I thought this one was a V.P. / Randy's distribution thing. License must have run out....who knows, maybe junjo also sold this one to greensleeves (illegally) back in the days even though it belong to Linvall. Well, if you don't know, then get to know.

Adam, no one has said that the "Nightfall" album is poor, not sure where you have read that but it wasn`t on this thread.

BTW, its a pity they couldn`t find room somewhere to release the "Folly Ranking" set which is also superb and one of JO`s best albums imo

Also from what I understand, Greensleeves has been purchased by VP. Hopefully this will lead to some even greater releases in the future.

Dave

kalcidis wrote:I don't think the third one is very poor. It has some tracks that are rather great such as the title track and »Na Look Nobody« (is there a dub to this one?). It is a it uneven perhaps ... can't remember was a long time I heard it last. Will pull it out this evening and give it a spin.

I've had "Water Pumping" since it was first released and I've rarely played it. People keep telling me it isn't a poor album so I go home and give it another spin. Sadly, every time I dig it out (and I did so recently) I come to the same conclusion; it's a very poor album.
Each to his own, of course.