Best Of Ska

From Bad Time Records comes THE SHAPE OF SKA PUNK TO COME: VOLUME 1, featuring 12 brand new / unreleased tracks from some of ska punk's boldest and brightest.

For those who don't want or can't afford to plonk out for the Toots & the Maytals' Time Tough: The Anthology, The Very Best Of provides the perfect solution, distilling down that two-CD, 41-track set to a single 19-song disc. There are a few subtle differences, however; for starters this set boasts two different versions of the band's reggae smash "54-46, That's My Number," as well as the original ska version of their Jamaican Song Festival winner "Bam Bam," unlike the anthology, which included only a later remodel. However, the "Never You Change" found on this set is not the trio's original ska hit, but a reggae-fied remake. The rest of the album pulls directly from the anthology, with the disc divided almost evenly between the trio and a solo Hibbert's pre- and post-Island career. Thus, for those who prefer the Maytals' ska and/or reggae hits, this is not the collection for you, as there are much better compilations of those periods. But for fans looking for a larger overview of both the band and Hibbert himself, this is an excellent place to start.

This double-disc set from Trojan includes classic ska, rocksteady and reggae tracks from Desmond Dekker & the Aces, Jimmy Cliff, Lee Perry & the Upsetters, the Melodians, Toots & the Maytals, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Ken Boothe, John Holt and many others. Though there are quite a few Jamaican classics missing from this history of the music, all the tracks included are quite solid.

In 1963, a 21-year-old welder with dreams of becoming a full-time singer-songwriter, auditioned for one of Jamaica’s new elite record producers, Leslie Kong, owner of the recently launched Beverley’s Records label. After performing a number of original compositions, a deal was secured and within weeks the first of Desmond Dekker’s many 7” singles hit Kingston’s record stores. The record, which coupled two of his own songs, ‘Honour Your Mother And Father’ and ‘Madgie’, became an instant best-seller and heralded the beginning of a long and immensely successful run of hit singles by Dekker throughout the remainder of ska era and well beyond. This 2xCD set showcases both sides of Dekker’s first twenty singles for Kong’s esteemed Beverley’s label that set him on the path to international stardom.

Graham McPherson, known by the stage name Suggs, is an English singer-songwriter, musician, radio personality and actor. In a music career spanning more than 30 years, Suggs came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the ska band Madness, which released fifteen singles that entered the Top 10 charts in the United Kingdom during the 1970s, 1980s and the 1990s, including "My Girl", "Baggy Trousers", "Embarrassment", "It Must Be Love", "House of Fun", "Driving in My Car", "Our House", "Wings of a Dove" and "Lovestruck". Suggs began his solo career in 1995, while still a member of Madness. Since then, he has released two studio albums, and two compilation albums. His solo hits include "I'm Only Sleeping", "Camden Town", "Cecilia" and "Blue Day".

While the two previous Best of UB40 collections neatly divided the band's output between their more political early period and their later, covers-oriented pop success, they were also only ten tracks apiece. The Very Best of UB40 1980-2000 is the first comprehensive single-disc overview of the band's career, and it's a lot more generous at 20 tracks. It isn't arranged chronologically, which actually helps the programming by splitting up the covers over the course of the running order. There's a bit more toughness to the earlier songs, both in the lyrics and the punchier performances. Yet in the end, the sonic differences are subtle enough that casual fans should still be able to enjoy them (unless they only want to hear the band performing reggae-pop versions of oldies they already know).