Best Reggae Albums of all time?

Augustus Pablo's King Tubby's Meets Rockers Uptown is probably my fave these days.

Yabby U, "King Tubby's Prophesy of Dub"

While both those are quite good albums, I tend to prefer reggae with vocals.

Yes, I was trying to avoid posting dub albums

Wayne Smith - Youthman Skanking

Hugh Mundell - Africa Must Be Free by 1983,
Jacob Miller - Who Say Jah No Dread,
Keith Hudson - Playing It Cool & Flesh of My Blood,
Barrington Levy - Englishman, Bounty Hunter, Shaolin Temple
Horace Andy - Dance Hall Style
Lacksley Castell - Morning Glory
Hugh Mundell/Lacksley Castell - Jah Fire
Linval Thompson - Rocking Vibration

Those are all albums i love from start to finish. Classics in my world.

i like heart of the congos, war ina babylon, two sevens clash, and black uhuru's showcase

Flesh Of My Blood is one of those records that the reputation of kind of overstated it's greatness. It's a good record, but it's not the best Hudson record by a long shot and aside from his poor vocals it's no where near as oddball as people make it sound.

i love Hudson's vocals though. I agree the reputation was offputting. When it was first repressed I passed on it but have grown to love it in the last year.

I very nearly put Entering the Dragon and Class & Subject in my list too. :)

Maybe I should have said unusual rather than poor. They are def. an acquired taste. I tend to think they work better on the dub records (Brand, Nuh Skin Up) then on the originals.

Keith Hudson's vocals are the reggae equivalent to Vini Reilly or Shaun Ryder for me. It's usually something i wouldn't enjoy but the feel of the music and the honesty in the vocals really hit with me.

Anyway that's a good list. Mine would probably look like this (picking actual albums or collection released at the time and focusing mostly on the seventies):

Barrington Levy Shaolin Temple
Big Youth Screaming Target
Burning Spear Social Living
Dennis Brown Wolves & Leopards
Dr. Alimantado Best Dressed Chicken In Town
Gregory Isaacs Extra-Classic
Johnny Osbourne Truths And Rights
Mighty Diamonds Right Time
The Congos Heart of the Congos
The Gladiators Trenchtown Mix Up

just put on Trenchtown Mix Up after reading your list. that is a great album. i haven't listened to it nearly enough.

Big Youth Screaming Target

oh yeah good one!

This thread is reminding me I need to get more Barrington Levy. haha I think what initially made me averse to him was, before I even heard his singing, seeing a photo of him wearing a Dr Seuss hat.
Trenchtown Mix-Up would be in my revised Top 5. Albert Griffiths doesn't have as good of a voice technically as some others, but he's still such a great singer.
Ctrl+F "Justin Hinds"=text not found :(((

I had a Barrington Levy Best Of for a while and only liked a few tracks for some reason. His output from 79-82 or so with Junjo/Roots Radics/Scientist is all strong. I'm glad i took the time to go back and investigate full albums instead of writing him off on a weak Best Of collection.

Top 5 not mentioned yet
1. Twinkie Bros - Countrymen
2. Justin Hinds - Travel With Love
3. Bim Sherman - Tribulation (comp, so cheating here a bit)
4. The Royals - Pick Up the Pieces
5. Israel Vibration - The Same Song

Bim Sherman's totally cheating!

I love Pick Up The Pieces, but 1) as harmony groups go, they pale a touch compared to others on my list and b) I think the dub version to their best record is better than the vocal set (wholeheartedly recommend the awesome Pressure Sounds set with this as the centerpiece.)

This has been on my want list so so so long. :(

http://www.roots-archives.com/release/2134

Lots of great stuff not appearing here. No Sugar Minott. No Freddie McGregor. No Abyssinians. 1 Heptones and I-Roy mention.

Possibly controversial opinion: Cables >>> Carlton & the Shoes.

Been on mine forever, too, Alex.
See, that Royals dub set ("Dub Pieces", right) is okay, but everytime I hear a track from it I just want to hear the original. You're right, as a harmony group, there's many who are better. But I've always heard it more as a Roy Cousin's album. I usually skip the tracks where he doesn't sing lead.

"See, that Royals dub set ("Dub Pieces", right) is okay, but everytime I hear a track from it I just want to hear the original."

Really? But the dubs are so great! Also great Prince Far I and I-Roy bits on the CD, but I guess that shouldn't count since I guess they aren't on the original dub album.

https://ssl.kundenserver.de/enter-the-dragon.com/images/bobby%20bobylon.jpg

I love how I am now making this argument after giving dudes a hard time for picking vocal-less dub album just a second ago. That said there are quite a few vocals on these dubs.

xp I know! How does that record not get one mention!?!?

i saw a reissue of his the other day, i think on vp?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kjI35ixCL._SS500_.jpg

Sugar Minott - Ghetto-ology and the Wackies Dancehall Showcase 1/2 would be my favs but Sufferers Choice has Uptown Ghetto which I love.

Mr McGregor is a different record than Bobby Bobylon, isn't it? The latter is on Studio One, Heartbeat did a deluxe-y version a year or two ago.

my favourite reggae album isnt really an album though, its the first vol (though vol 2 would do fine too) of the hearbeat studio one comp.

Top ten comps off the top of my head:

Rebel Music
Best of Studio One
More Pressure
Open The Gate
Build The Ark
That Wailers Six CD Upsetters Box Set
VP Channel One Story 1 & 2
Recent Joe Gibbs 2 CD thing on VP seems pretty complete
Yabby U Jesus Dread
Sufferation

Actually I guess you could replace Sufferation with virtually any Niney comp. Rock On and Observer Station and Truth & Rights style are all excellent. He might be the most underrated roots producer (unlike like say Glen Brown who is so underrated, he's now kind of overrated.)

mr. mcgregor is a different album. just noting its reissue is all. also there's a new niney comp. and man do i want it

http://images.juno.co.uk/full/CS337910-01B-BIG.jpg

Have not seen anyone mention

Trinity - Shantytown Determination

Yeah I saw that. I guess that replaces the 3 Heartbeat CDs I've got heh.

Wish they'd re-release this Nighthawk comp, which I had on vinyl. It contains the awesome "Walk the Chalk Line" by the Wailing Souls, which I can't find anywhere else.
http://www.strictly-vibes.com/covers/V/VA_knottyVisions.jpg

funny that Niney comes up now. i had a friend over last night and was burning some music for him and he specifically asked for more of Niney. I gave him the Blood and Fire comp a while back that he listened to endlessly so i hooked him up with 3 more Niney comps. Rock On, Observer Station and Microphone Attack

I've been looking for Knotty Visions on mp3 for a whilte. I assume the license for the tracks reverted which is why Nighthawk hasn't done a CD version.

youre talking about the blood and fire comp on trojan right?

yeah, 2CD set on Trojan: http://roots-archives.com/release/4112

Jacob Miller - Who Say Jah No Dread

Excellent!

I love Who Say Jah No Dread but i'm having a harder time getting into his other solo albums.

Miller's kind of hit or miss. There's probably a comp out there that gathers most of his best stuff.

i think i remember 'tenement yard' being pretty good. 'who say jah no dread' is pretty much a compilation, not really a proper album anyway, but it's great start to finish

I thought Who Say was released originally in the 70s, but I guess not. Anyway I was thinking more of his non-Pablo productions.

I've tried the King Tubby In A Tenement Yard thing, Killer Miller, Killer Rides Again and I'm Just A Dread. I guess it's the Pablo production that i really love.