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Spirits in the Material World: A Reggae Tribute to The Police
Shanachie (2/19/08)
Reggae (Dub / Ska)
Tribute albums can go either way. On one end of the spectrum, you have releases like The Electro Industrial Tribute to Korn and the countless Cleopatra Records tribute albums, including '80s Metal Tribute to Van Halen (a fustercluck featuring different bits and pieces of defunct rock bands thrown together and billed as their original bands), We Will Follow: A Tribute to U2 (an industrial compilation featuring Cleopatra cover-album standards like Spahn Ranch, Razed in Black, The Electric Hellfire Club, Rosetta Stone and former new wave bands like Heaven 17 and Information Society) and The Song Remains Remixed: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin (which is exactly what it sounds like, and is just a horrible as you would expect it to be). This let's-make-a-tribute-album for-the hell-of-it variation is unfortunately much more common than you'd think, though once in a very great while a halfway decent cover album (like the entertainingly garish Before You Were Punk punk tributes to new wave standards) manages to emerge from the rest of the garbage.
When I first received this album, I got a little nervous reading the press release, which touts the album as being "produced by Inner Circle (creators of the "Bad Boys" hit Cops theme)". Oh, man. I was very close to pawning this off on someone else; however, after seeing the artists involved (a considerably talented roster featuring legends like Lee "Scratch" Perry, Toots & The Maytals, Gregory Isaacs, Horace Andy and The Wailing Souls), I admit, my interest was piqued.
Of course, a reggae tribute to The Police really should come naturally, as reggae (along with punk, new wave and rock) was one of the many influences that the band used in the forming its sound. Not surprisingly, then, it has been done previously, as with the two installments of Reggatta Mondatta (featuring high-profile artists like Chaka Demus & Pliers, Aswad, Maxi Priest, Inner Circle and Ziggy Marley) and the dismal Reggae Tribute to The Police (featuring... Rasta Control?).
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