Nearly Perfect . . .

When I started this blog it was, as it has always been, my intention to kind of try to work to destroy this kind of mentality that ‘older is better’ in Reggae music. And that’s certainly to not down the foundation artists, but far too many times I’ve sat in on conversations and discussions of elders who will, unhesitatingly, put down modern Reggae music as not being ‘what it used to be’ and although I was clearly equipped to make the case otherwise, I (usually) didn’t. So, one of the ways I came up with to actually get this off my chest was the ‘Modern Classic’ feature. A Modern Classic was an album which: 1) Was released after the calendar year 2000 ended and before the previous year began (this year, of course, it’s 2009) and 2) Was done SO well (in my opinion) that it had risen to the point of being a pretty FLAWLESS piece of work and thus worthy of the word ‘Classic‘. With eight years at my disposal and in the past fourteen months since I wrote the first one (Lutan Fyah’s ”Phantom War”) I’ve reached twenty-one (which is good, considering that those things take FOREVER to write). But I’m always thinking about others to add also. Well, here is a list of some which didn’t quite (or have YET to) make the cut. These are the ‘near misses’ - the ‘Almost Modern Classics‘.

{note: Albums are listed in absolutely no particular order}
{note 2: I have obeyed my own rules for this list, so you’ll see no albums from 2009 or before 2001}
{note 3: I'll almost surely be revisiting this subject, I cut out a few to get to 10}

Culture Dem Vol. 1 [Lustre Kings Productions 2002]

If you read me with any regularity, you probably have a pretty good idea just how infatuated with this album that I actually am. Seriously, for me ”Culture Dem” was like a landmark album. It not only may’ve been the very first place that I actually sat down and listened to a Lutan Fyah tune (‘No More War’), but it definitely put me further onto artists such as Ilue, Al Pancho [your laugh here], Jah Mason at the time and even Turbulence and not only that, but with record labels seemingly coming and going as much as they do, this label, Lustre Kings Productions, is still here almost a decade on and this, after installments two and three, respectively, has become its signature release. It’s not quite a ‘modern classic’, because it would be very difficult for me to defend certain aspects of this album as being GREAT or even nearly so at this point, but I think that “landmark” is the perfect word for it, even if only for myself.

Buju Banton - “Too Bad” [Gargamel Music 2006]

I don’t quite remember what tune it was, exactly, but I recently got grabbed back into Buju’s Dancehall album, ”Too Bad” from a few years back and you know what ??? Damn. It was good! Particularly registering with me was what I still regard to be the album’s finest moment, ‘’Til It Bend’, which is just fucking ridiculous, but definitely other tunes like ‘Try Offa Yuh’, the sickness that was ‘Hey Boy’, ‘Don & Dupes’ alongside Pinchers, ‘Better Day Coming’, the title track and of course ‘Driver A’ . . . and really I could go on and on. Still, it will NEVER be a classic in my eyes and largely because of ‘Me & Oonu’ which was damned with the Wipeout Riddim which is hideous. However, in retrospect, you could very well make the case that this is the best Dancehall album since the turn of the century and despite Buju’s always pressing concerns, you have to give him credit for that.

Beres Hammond - “Music Is Life” [VP Records 2001]

In terms of going forth, this album, along with one more are the most likely on this list to grab the ‘modern classic’ tag. It definitely is a 5star album, however, probably on the lower end, but the years are definitely getting kinder and kinder to ”Music Is Life” from Beres Hammond. There are definitely classic moments - Tunes like ‘they Gonna Talk’, ‘Ain’t It Good To Know’, ‘Dance 4 Me’ alongside Wyclef Jean and especially ‘Rock Away’ have gone become very well regarded tunes and will, at least seemingly, continue to grow and grow. Upon further (very intense) scrutiny, the latter stages of the album aren’t as strong as everyone may’ve given them credit for being, but should the wind blow in the proper direction and the stars align just right, don’t be surprised to see this one taking the next step.

Jah Mason - “Wheat & Tears” [Greensleeves 2006]

Jah Mason is the first of four artists on this list that actually already has a modern classic already to his credit on our blog, for his greatest album to date, the masterpiece that was ”Never Change” (which I wrote a shockingly short year ago) and when I wrote that one I got maybe three or four or five emails from readers who wanted to make sure that I knew that, in fact, his finest album was ”Wheat & Tears”. Well they were wrong, but that certainly doesn’t mean that the album wasn’t outstanding because it most certainly was. “If you see me praising The Most High, don’t you wonder why”, ignited one of the album’s biggest moments, ‘Most High’ and there were several others such as the title track, definitely ‘Couple Chalice A Day’, ‘This Morning’, ‘Farmer Man’ and ‘Mi Chalwa’. Why I’m not quite ready to call it a classic just yet is because some of the slower vibed tunes like ‘My Life’ and ‘Now You Say’, weren’t as strong as originally thought, but they weren’t far from it. So although you may be wrong (and you are) if you think it’s better than ”Never Change”, definitely ”Wheat & Tears” was a real winner.

Lutan Fyah - “You Bring Blessings” [Cousins/In The Streetz 2007]

Up until now I’ve kind of made it a point on this list to kind of casually mention WHY I think that the particular album in question just barely misses grabbing the label in question and I’ve used specific examples, but you aren’t going to find that here because the reason why ”You Bring Blessings” from Lutan Fyah is far more cryptic. As I said, his album, ”Phantom War” was the very first Modern Classic and he has another which is just . . . waiting to be written (two more actually, if you include “Africa”) and if someone else were writing it and they included ”You Bring Blessings” somewhere down the line, I wouldn’t argue with them at all. For me, however, what I’ll say is that what you have on a few tunes like ‘Never Stop Hail Rastafari’ and ‘After All’ with Norris Man - Which is spectacular vibes - Doesn’t really prevail through most of the album. I’m going to go cliché, but it’s ‘steady but unspectacular’ and while just about all of the tunes are at least GOOD when you really listen to them, not enough of them seem to really DEMAND that you take note.

Messenjah Selah - “Breaking Babylon Curse” [Zion High Productions 2008]

Going to have a hard time explaining this one, won’t I - In terms of directly writing about it in any form, Messenjah Selah’s ”Breaking Babylon Curse” is pretty solid as the album which I have written about more than any other. A small part of that is actually coincidence (I had an idea and it was pretty fresh in my mind at the time) and a large part of that is because I think that it is EASILY one of the most INTERESTING albums of the last few years, but when you just kind of glance at it, there’s nothing that would make it REALLY stand out from the hundreds of other Rasta Man making music for His Majesty albums. It is a very very strong album, but I think what keeps it from being a classic is exactly what I dug and dug for. This album for me and for so many listeners, I’m sure (and I hope that I helped), is a gold mine of material, but just like an actual mine, you have to DIG and DIG and DIG. I don’t mind doing that (obviously), but when you have to do that much work to get the greatness you start to think if it’s really there or you just REALLY REALLY WANT it to be there (obviously it was there for me, but for you)???

Anthony B - “Live On The Battlefield” [Jahmin’ Records 2002]

I have to say that I had three or four Anthony B albums in mind that I was going to use for this position because, with very few exceptions, the man’s entire career has been a situation of doing very consistent work and he’s already had a feature for the ”My Hope” album, but I thought about what would be one of his next and certainly somewhere in there has to be this dynamic live set, ”Live On The Battlefield”. It was two discs, thirty tracks in all and just a very very well done set and thankfully I believe Tad’s later picked it up and re-released it and it also was available on DVD. Ultimately it’s very very hard to have a live album make it to be regarded as a classic, but really, don’t be at all surprised if I have the audacity to try and make the case for this one, one day (it would probably be very interesting to write. Hmmm . . . ).

{note: Yes I do have the old version from Jahmin Records}
{note 2: Be jealous, dammit}
{note 3: Hey Susan!}

Capleton - “Reign Of Fire” [VP Records 2004]

I had to actually go back and make a change when I realized that ”Free Jah’s Cure” was actually originally released back in 2000 (and thus ineligible for consideration) and I thought that it was an album which was absolutely PERFECT for this list in terms of its actual quality and the degree to which the masses had grown to appreciate it over the years, but what I’m replacing it with, Capleton’s ”Reign Of Fire” is arguably just as perfect for the role. This album definitely had more than its fair share of spectacular moments, most notably there was ‘That Day Will Come’ which will and has gone on to become a classic Prophet tune, but if you REALLY think about it, the class of the album, which was made up of tunes like the aforementioned hit, ‘Jah Is My Everything’, ‘Ton Load’ (BIG!), ‘Undeniable’ and ‘In Her Heart’ didn’t get to the levels that similar tunes did on his two previous albums, ”Still Blazin’” (already a classic) and ”More Fire”. It was a step down, in my opinion, from those two, but still pretty spectacular at times and probably the best example of a near classic on this entire list from an artist who has had at least two.

Ziggi - “In Transit” [Rock ‘N Vibes/Greensleeves 2008]

I was going to save this one for last (but I screwed up), but as I mentioned, there’re one or two albums here which will probably need only a bit of time before they’re regarded as classics and definitely ”In Transit” from the baddest Dutchie Reggae artist on the planet, Ziggi Recado, is one of them and I could even see it happening before the end of 2010. The album was just big and I’ll reference something that I mentioned in regards to Lutan Fyah’s ”You Bring Blessings” album - My first thought as to why not to call it a classic was the thought that it, too, lacked really SPECTACULAR moments, but as time goes by, its definitively special moments - Tunes like ‘Cry Murdah’, ‘Shackles & Chains’ and ‘Better Way’ with Gentleman - Are being joined by songs like ‘Fight This Struggle’, ‘Unconditional’ and hits ‘Need To Tell You This’ and ‘Gonna Leave You’ and that isn’t even mentioning the combinations with Ce’Cile, Anthony B and Admiral T. Each time I listen to it, I get something new and all it needs it just a bit of time and chances are good I and the rest of the Reggae loving world with sense will give ”In Transit” its credit for being the great album that it is.

Tarrus Riley - “Parables” [VP Records 2006]

And finally there’s ”Parables” which has become arguably one of the most popular hardcore Reggae albums since the turn of the century. Tarrus Riley assured himself the creator of a classic album last year, with the release of his third studio album, ”Contagious”, and I think most people would’ve counted this one as his first. I don’t think so, just quite. With pieces like ‘Micro Chip’, ‘She’s Royal’, ‘Lion Paw’ and his remake of John Legend’s GORGEOUS ‘Stay With You’, the album definitely had classic tunes (and people my literally NEVER stop singing ‘She’s Royal’ and deservingly so), but if you really dig into it, there were some soft spots in retrospect. The final three selections, for example, ‘Let Love Live’ with Duane Stephenson, ‘Family’ and ‘My Baby’ weren’t approaching top notch and kind of got lost in the shuffle in some cases. But what was GREAT on the album was so GREAT that it almost seemed to take moments like those and sweep them under the rug.