90
Bob Marley and The Wailers - Trenchtown Rock (Anthology 1969-78)
2002
Reggae
Best tracks: 'Mr Brown', 'Keep On Skanking', 'Trenchtown Rock', 'Lively Up Yourself', 'Sun Is Shining', 'Duppy Conqueror', 'Jah Is Mighty' , 'Back Out', 'Fussing and Fighting' . . impossible to limit to five!
It's a bit sad that the sterile, westernised sounds of
Legend and
Exodus are what Marley's most famous for. This is how any good music snob should get their Marley fix. This compilation of the Wailer's non-Island, largely Lee Perry produced work is simply one of the most joyful collections of music there is. It's warm and rough around the edges and has the most impassioned vocals that Marley ever laid down. I tend to skip half of the tracks on it to be honest, but there
is over 50 of the damn things! Something I should tell you before we continue . . I struggle to get through an LP that's over 45 minutes. You won't see many other comps or double albums on my list. I'll always take a concise, very good album over an occasionally great long album.
But what highs! 'Back Out' is a stern but upbeat plea to that person who often turns up to the party. You know, the one that brings unnecessary tension, shifty eyes and a whiff of violence to dampen the fun. The person that is "making things go slow" as Marley wonderfully puts it. 'Duppy Conqueror' is an impossibly pretty sounding thing that has the Wailer's making bird coo noises for backing vocals. 'Sun Is Shining' isn't the summer pop smash you think it is. It's the sound of a storm brewing in a spooky shanty town. There might be a shootout tonight. The glorious fairground skank of 'Mr Brown' contains the greatest chorus I've ever heard. (The cruelest too. You only get to hear it one and a half times). Bunny Livingstone's 'Dreamland' is a ballad so touching that it isn't even ruined by its association with an ex-lover, even if the "surely we'll never die" fadeout is a challenge. That's the good thing about music. When it hits you feel no pain.