Retro Respeck

• Artist: Various Artists
• Release Date: 2004
• Type: Collection (various artists)
• Genre: Reggae

Review

This album is the fruit of a great idea: get a bunch of reggae artists from both the new school (Chrisinti, Yah Breeze) and the old (Marcia Griffiths, Jack Radics) and invite them to cover a bunch of soul and disco classics from the 1970s. And for the most part, the project works out quite nicely. Marcia Griffiths is far and away the star of the show, opening it with a bang with her rendition of Dorothy Moore's "Special Occasion" and ending it even more powerfully with a brilliantly funky update of Miriam Makeba's "Pata Pata." Other highlights include Sharon Forrester's intricately arranged version of Minnie Riperton's "It's So Nice to See Old Friends" and Fiona's exuberant rendition of the immortal disco classic "Don't Leave Me This Way." E.T. Webster delivers a rhythmically quirky but infectious version of "Working My Way Back to You," and Jack Radics really puts his back into a fun arrangement of Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." Every once in a while the proceedings sound just a little bit thrown together (as on the unnecessary "bonus track" that emerges awkwardly after the brilliant "Pata Pata"), but for the most part this collection succeeds very nicely. ~ Rick Anderson, Rovi

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