Best Reggae Albums of all time?

Here goes:

Dread Beat an' Blood - Linton Kwesi Johnson Dry and heavy - Burning Spear Starship Africa - Creation Rebel Cry Tuff Dub Encounter 3 (I think it's 3 - the one with the swirly sleeve) - Prince Far-I Original Rockers - Augustus Pablo

I must stress that these are purely personal selections, not a list of accepted classics.

thinking about this made realise how reggae is not particularly an album music. So many individual tracks I love, so many great compilations and mixed tapes, but where are the albums? An honourable 'bubbling under' mention goes to: Althea and Donna - Up town top ranking; Johnny Clarke - Rockers Time; Dillinger - (can't remember title, features 'Truth and Rights' and has a black and white cartoon of him on sleeve); Hugh Mundell - Africa must be free.

As people have observed, there aren't a lot of wicked reggae albums, but this is because reggae is simple single driven music. Bring on the 7 inch singles!

Also, a lot of the 'pop' UK Trojan etc. single artist studio albs from the late 60s/early 70s are gd fun, and perfectly fine for everyday listening.

Perhaps I just have low standards.

and compilations:
the on u sound box - dread operator, in dub daze, & a party of dubbers & toasters
all of the Soul Jazz comps including the 100% dynamite comps and the Studio 1 Rockers, etc.

upsetters - super ape
congos - heart of the congos
rastafari vol 1 weird thing my fried found for 50p in camden and it's truly ace
King Tubby - Essential Dub
King Tubby and Jah Lloyd - A Double Helping of...
Scientist - Rids the world of the curse of the evil vampire

Here's a version of my Top 20:

Tougher Than Tough: The Story of Jamaican Music (Mango)
Duke Reid's Treasure Chest: Treasure Isle Rocksteady (Heart Beat)
Jimmy Cliff, The Harder They Come (Mango)
Rockin' Steady: The Best of Desmond Dekker (Rhino)
Dr. Alimantado, Born For a Purpose (Green Sleeves)
Augustus Pablo, King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown (Shanachie)
Rudies All Round: Rude Boy Records 1966/1967 (Trojan)
Ska Boogie: Jamaican R&B, the Dawn of Ska (Sequel Records)
Club Ska '67 (Mango) (Guy Stevens liner notes!)
The Congos, The Heart of the Congos (Blood & Fire)
Toots & the Maytals, Funky Kingston (Mango)
Culture, Two Sevens Clash (Shananchie)
Randy's 17 North Parade: Clive Chin Productions (Pressure Sounds)
Dread Meets Punk Rockers Uptown (EMI)
The Heptones and Friends, Volumes 1 & 2 (Trojan)
The Birth of Ska (Trojan)
The Clash, Black Market Clash (Columbia)
Beenie Man, Art and Life (BP/Virgin)
The Cables, What Kind of World (Peckings Studio One)

Overstock.com is selling Keith Hudsons's 'Pick a Dub' for $5!
Anyone w/any interest in dub should be very pleased w/this album

Keith Hudson is my favourite reggae producer, so I second Oops's recommendation.

Virtually everyone's mentioned The Congos (who I haven't heard), so that may be the consensus choice. Can somebody tell me why it's so great?

I also like LKJ. There's an excellent 2CD anthology available called Independent Intavenshan which combines 'Forces Of Victory', 'LKJ In Dub' and 'Bass Culture'.

unfortunately, don't know enough about lee perry or toots besides best of comps.

Bob Marley - Natty Dread, Catch A Fire
The Harder They Come Soundtrack
Peter Tosh - Legalize It, Equal Rights
Black Uhuru - Sinsemilla

Then everything Vivian Jackson ever did. and Dr Alimintado.

Not fair! (neither is that Maytals I reckon), and Garvey's Ghost is pretty weak as a dub album.

Prince Far I - Heavy Manners
Culture - Two Sevens Clash
Lee Perry - Roast Fish Collie Weed and Corn Bread
Horace Andy - In the Light
Jimmy Cliff - The Harder they Come

(hey, anyone notice that the intro to song 10 on In the Light is totally hip hop-y?)

What about those Soul Jazz comps? Studio One, etc., anyone heard that stuff, I'm curious. Soul Jazz always does a nice job with packaging and details, not to mention some fine musical taste...

If not, then I'd go for "Survival". Obviously Bob Marley anyway. No one comes close.

Well, if I really wanted to piss the R&B people off I could have voted for whatever contained "Dreadlock Holiday" or "Haitian Divorce" :-)

An album is an album.

Also: nice to see Geir choosing my least favorite Marley album (Survival).

Had no idea. Got it for $4 from Ernie's a couple of years back.

It's fucking criminal that I can find no copies of the Gladiators' "Trenchtown Mix Up" on vinyl anywhere on the internet, other than at ridiculously high prices.

this is still my number one at the moment.

http://dug-out.de/images/doxyz004a.jpg

but there are a LOT of reggae albums i haven't heard. so it might change someday.

I'm sure I've heard that before somewhere... Will have to have a look around my collection as it really rings a bell.

it's haunting. and hypnotic. essential.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb6VAZSMHNc

oh Ras Michael, yeah I have that cos you banged on about it a few months back. It is indeed a joy (although the tracks are VERY long). Have you heard Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus' "Rastafari" album? Also very lovely.

hope this is a good quality tube - i'm at work, so can't check:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ42tkAFu_g

Scott, you might also like Cedric IM Brooks & The Magical Light of Saba in this vein.

cedric brooks is amazing. love that stuff. i recently sold an original copy of this album. i wanted to keep it but i need to, like, eat and stuff.

http://www.popsike.eu/pix/20120417/280865306953.jpg

its basically the history of reggae that ends with long mystical freedom jam.

Have you both heard Count Ossie & the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari? Even longer songs including some spoken poems, but worth checking out if you like Ras Michael and Cedric Brooks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHER45e_4nY

I have a copy of a triple CD I bought years ago of that for about 6p (not joking, it was so cheap). The sound quality is atrocious but the music was great - jazz inflected nyabinghi jams and spoken word monologues IIRC.

lol, yeah my copy is in one of those first-generation double CD sets that are as wide as three jewelcases. And yes, you do RC.

just wonderful stuff. easy to become obsessed with it all.

brought this up on the reggae thread probably but still captivated by this 12 inch. THIS i had to keep when i got a nice copy. not an album, but it would be on any list i would make of fave jamaican records. must have played it 50 times when i got it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqbzrvWFWIc

kinda endless though when it comes to great reggae. ha! to put it mildly. i've been listening non-stop via what i get in at the store and i've barely scratched the surface.

and the hits just keep on coming. got a big stack of recent 45s in the other day and have had a ball listening. fave this week: unicorn & sajay - couchie tight (from 2005. don't even know who unicorn is...)

http://www.muzieklijstjes.nl/Tips/tootsMaytalsFunkyKingston.jpg
Still my favorite, 30 years after I first heard it. Probably in my all-time top five.

Haha, what happened there? Was supposed to be this:
http://www.recordrevolution.com/sites/default/files/album_covers/reggae_20.jpg

would have to pick a heptones album or singles comp but i don't know which one. how about every heptones album and singles comp from the 60's and 70's. that ought to cover it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxipmsfJMVs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PURSWR3iwbQ

https://rymimg.com/lk/o/l/3fc02cd0b1f4f70318c4bbf38adcf3fb/6132801.jpg

Bob Andy - The Music Inside Me (1976)
While one could argue that Bob Andy reached an early peak with the singles collected on Song Book (1970), it's not the whole story. His songwriting, vocals and melodies are just as strong on this album, but with the added benefit of a better, fuller sound. Similar to Justin Hinds who was also better known for his 60s work with the Dominoes, The Music Inside Me is a brilliant, underrated gem along the lines of Hinds' somewhat more celebrated Jezebel (1976). This is sorely in need of a proper reissue. All but three of the songs show up in the Retrospective collection, but the title track, "Make Mine Music" and "Feeling Soul" are killers, not fillers that deserve to be heard alongside his better known "Fire Burning." Also check out Lots of Love & I (1977).

A 1976 mix: https://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/0Wlvk9tOshWjOl4hqoAo3H

huh dunno this one

Have been glad to see a number of the Trojan compis that came out around the milenium reappear over the last year. The 2cd sets are great.

Hm, have had "The Music Inside Me" for like 20 years, remember not thinking much to it; I'll give it another go. It'll have to go some to match "Song Book" though.

Marcus Garvey by Burning Spear has qualities that always made me stick tracks on tapes next to Miles Davis or Can.

%4-69 Was My Number Toots and the Maytals the Trojan 2cd overview of his stuff, first disc is ska and rocksteady 2nd is the 70s stuff. I think it has almost complete lps on there.

Lee perry Ape-ology has the jamaican Super-Ape and it's sequel and Roast Fish And Collie Weed plus some stray tracks
also Wonderman years, Dub Triptych, Dubstrumentals.

Augustus Pablo Original rockers

Flashing Echo the Trojan 2cd dub compi.

Culture 2 7s Clash had an anniversary remaster on Shanachie about 10 years ago which is great.

The Wailers Trenchtown Rock The trojan 2cd of all of the Lee Perry stuff 1st disc is the late 60s, 2nd is the 70s. I think this material has been released elsewhere under different titles. I do really like taht early stuff from the late 60s. I don't really listen to that much Bob Marley since I found his music too poppy, maybe it was watered down for the Interantional market,. Took me years to hear how much soul there was in his voice.

Heart of the Congos love the iridescent production.

several others that will probably come back to me later.

Yeah, a good summary of some of the best. Toots & the Maytals is the best. I remember that comp, and eventually I just got all his albums. I had to! I'm actually going to see him this summer at a reggae fest in Chicago. It's been 20 years, so will be good to see him before he croaks (as so many of that generation are doing with increasing frequency).

Some nice writing by Sean Murphy on five albums:

HalleluJAH: Heart of the Congos
http://www.popmatters.com/post/five-reggae-albums-you-cannot-live-without/

Part Two: Make a Joyful Noise Unto JAH: Culture’s International Herb
http://www.popmatters.com/post/five-reggae-albums-you-cannot-live-without1/

Go and Seek Your Rights: The Mighty Diamonds’ Right Time
http://www.popmatters.com/post/five-reggae-albums-you-cannot-live-without-part-three/

Walking the Streets of Glory: Israel Vibration’s The Same Song
http://www.popmatters.com/post/five-reggae-albums-you-cannot-live-without-part-four/

Party Music for the Apocalypse: Mikey Dread’s Beyond World War III
http://www.popmatters.com/post/five-reggae-albums-you-cannot-live-without-part-five/

Junior Delahaye - Showcase (1982)
And yet another release in the string of classic Wackies albums that have been (re)released by Berlin dub-techno duo Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus a.k.a. Rhythm & Sound, as part of their rerelease program of the complete Wackie's catalog. More on their own releases, whether technodub on Basic Channel or their Rhythm & Sound label and also on their classic Wackie's (re)releases can be found at the Basic Channel website. "Reggae" as the album is called on the sleeve a.k.a. "Showcase" as it is known as well and dubbed by Rhythm & Sound upon their Bullwackies reissue programme, by Junior Delahaye was originally released in 1982. "Love" is a fabulous self-penned track where Junior's falsetto in combination with the classic dubby Wackies riddims immediately brings to mind the best moments of the classic combination of Junior Murvin's voice over Lee 'Scratch' Perry produced riddims. And like every other track, this album is truly showcase style, thus followed directly by its dub version, and coming from Wackies that's a real treat. Next Junior, who also co-engineered the album alongside Lloyd 'Bullwackie' Barnes covers the 1971 Fuzz hit penned by their lead singer Seil Young "I Love You For All Seasons" in a much deeper voice that keeps floating on top of the dub mix in the second part of the track. The 'reggae-traditional' "Travelling Man" is preceded by the self-penned absolutely brilliant "All I Need Is Jah" on which the version part of the track gets a beautiful saxophone treatment by legendary Roland Alphonso, and another classic song versioned by more than a few reggae-icons gets the Junior Delahaye/Wackies treatment: Billy Stewart's "Sitting In The Park". This beautiful disc, that should be recommended to just every lover of roots, only has one weakness, as we have gotten used to bonus tracks even on regular releases, it clocks in at 35 minutes, and no matter how nice the ideas to release the another catalogue in 'original form' it's a bit short. I could stand more than an hour of this niceness, that is now cut short after the lovers tune "Movie Show" for which Junior Delahaye uses the most seductive lower ranges of his vocal register, before the final bars of its dub fade away.

am i weird for liking the heptones "party time" more than "heart of the congos"?

Not at all, I'm sure many people prefer the soulful, tuneful Heptones to the murk of the Congos. It's not a universal appeal, but the Congos just has a sort of mystical feel that's hard to nail down, and for me results in some rewarding repeated listening, both deep sessions on headphones, or just in the background. Kind of along the lines of what made Astral Weeks and Black Saint and the Sinner Lady favorites too.

Here's a dynamic list that evolves month to month:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/jgnikkila/top_250_reggae_albums__according_to_ryms_heavy_reggae_heads_/

think i prefer police and thieves to both. heart of the congos is really frontloaded, iirc, but i should listen again.

or maybe it's just that it's impossible to top "open the gate", one of my top 5-10 reggae tunes

That Yabby You collection is monumental, and probably the straight up heaviest music I've ever heard. I passed up a decent vinyl copy a few years back and still sometimes wake in a cold sweat...

Funny that I have Jesus Dread disc1 playing right now.

Not quite sure about heaviest has had some reasonably heavy moments but there are much heavier things I've heard.

the recent Deeper Roots comps are where it's at re: Yabby You

Did anyone else pick up the 3 CD Yabby You Dread Prophecy set? It's really great, with 30 tracks you can't get anywhere else. Extensive liner notes, but stupidly it does not include the recording dates for the tracks! I know with all the ganja the exact dates of those records can be hazy, but the other comps managed it.

The RYM list I linked above is nice, but I wouldn't include comps. Conquering Lion at 16 sounds about right. Burning Spear's Social Living (Marcus' Children) -- be sure to get the Blood & Fire version with the two bonus tracks -- and Keith Hudson's Playing It Cool, Playing It Right usurp the usual choices of Marcus Garvey and Flesh of My Skin - Blood of My Blood. I pretty much agree with those choices. Speaking of Blood & Fire, I miss their deluxe treatments and attention to detail and art. Among many candidates, a nice two-fer of Horace Andy's Dance Hall Style and Exclusively would be great. They really belong together in a set, being the same session, but different approaches.

I have the Deeper Roots and Jesus Dread comps - had no idea there was 30 more tracks that's crazy

To be clear, it's 10 previously unreleased tracks and 30 tracks never previously on CD.

10 previously unreleased tracks are mostly variations of released tracks IIRC. Jesus Dread is better IMO.

Sure, Jesus Dread is more concentrated goodness. But it's missing a lot. I do wish they'd just release everything, but that just isn't being done with reggae artists, and is probably impossible for most due to the chaotic nature of varied long-gone labels and missing masters, etc.

Here's a summary of my past month's listening: http://fastnbulbous.com/choice-summer-choons-2016/

Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/0FyhuiLuajEwSoYavrxmfw
All-Time Favorite Reggae Albums: http://fastnbulbous.com/reggae/
RYM list: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Fastnbulbous/all_time_favorite_reggae_albums/

nice, i will enjoy digging through that!

The albums I spotlighted are:

Ras Michael & The Sons Of Negus – Dadawah, Peace & Love (Trojan/Dug Out, 1974)
Noel Ellis – Noel Ellis (Summer/In The Light, 1983)
Keith Hudson – Playing It Cool & Playing It Right (Joint/Basic Replay, 1981)
Bob Andy – The Music Inside Me (Jigsaw, 1976)
Horace Andy – Dance Hall Style/Exclusively (Wackie’s, 1982)
Junior Delahaye – Showcase (Wackie’s, 1982)
Alton Ellis – Many Moods Of Alton Ellis (Makasound, 1980)
Lacksley Castell – Morning Glory (Negus Roots, 1982)
Mikey Dread – World War III (Heartbeat/Dread at the Controls, 1980)
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Dread Beat An’ Blood (Frontline, 1978)
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Kaya (Tuff Gong/Island, 1978)
Third World – 96 Degrees in the Shade (Mango, 1977)
Ijahman – Haile I Hymn (Mango/Jahmani, 1978)
Pablo Gad – Hard Times (Form, 1980)
Steel Pulse – Handsworth Revolution (Island, 1978)
Leroy Brown – Prayer Of Peace (Color Barrier) (Makasound, 1976)
Althea & Donna – Uptown Top Ranking (Frontline/Virgin, 1978)
Peter Broggs – Rastafari Liveth (RAS, 1982)
Winston Jarrett – Wise Man (Tamoki Wambesi, 1979)

Can never have too much Bullwackie's.

Wayne Jarrett – Bubble Up (Showcase Vol. 1) (Wackie’s, 1982)
Love Joys – Lovers Rock (Reggae Style) (Wackie’s, 1982)
Love Joys – Reggae Vibes (Wackie's, 1981)

100% repping for Alton Ellis - Many Moods of https://www.discogs.com/Alton-Ellis-Many-Moods/release/2802422

I mean, look at the album credits:

Backing Vocals – The Heptones, Johnny Clarke
Bass – Boris Gardner*, Leroy Sibbles, Lloyd Parks
Drums – Carlton "Santa" Davis, Sly Dunbar
Guitar – Bingy Bunny, Bo-Peep*
Lead Guitar – Ranchie McLean*, Rick-a-Backa*
Organ – Ansel Collins, Winston Wright
Percussion – Alton Ellis, Bongo Hermann*, Skully*, Sticky*
Tenor Saxophone – Headley Bennett*
Trombone – Vin Gordon
Trumpet – Bobby Ellis

Contributing factors: I bought a sealed copy in DC last year and tonight decided to break the seal. The band sound so good on every track. Reminds me that Arise Black Man is an incredible compilation.

Bit of filler on the second side, so maybe not exactly what i'd put in a top 10 list or anything.

Heh, you're probably thinking about his cover of "Loving You." But yeah, it sounds great.

RIP Bunny Wailer at 73. He had suffered a few strokes in recent years.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Bunny_Wailer_is_dead

Oh man! This is very sad indeed. RIP Bunny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYPEsP05VJc