Review: 'The Harder They Come: Original Soundtrack' 50th Anniversary Vinyl Edition

Although ska had been quite popular in the UK, and Millie Small even managed to get a stateside hit with "My Boy Lollipop" in 1964, reggae wasn't very well known outside Jamaica until the first Jamaican-made film, Perry Henzell's The Harder They Come (1972), introduced it to midnight movie audiences in 1973. Although sweet-voiced Jimmy Cliff, who starred as singer-turned-robber Ivanhoe Martin in the film, was the dominant artist on the soundtrack, The Harder They Come: Original Soundtrack served as a handy and consistently superb various artists primer for listeners unfamiliar with reggae and ska. 

Review: 'The Vinyl Series Volume Two'

With its joyous mélange of ska, reggae, soul, and Spencer Davis Group, the theme of Chris Blackwell's The Vinyl Series: Volume One could be summed up as "Mod Party." Volume Two is a little harder to pin down. On first blush, Blackwell seems to have gone down more of a singer-songwriter alley this time, what with its very personal tracks by Cat Stevens ("Lady D'Arbenville"), Nick Drake (the sublimely somber "River Man"), John Martyn (somber ode to pal Drake "Solid Air"), Jimmy Cliff (lovely "Many Rivers to Cross"), and even Traffic (Dave Mason mumbles "Feelin' Alright" like he's playing to his chest in a coffee bar). 

So then where does Free's Classic-Rock-101 staple "All Right Now" fit in? Or The Heptones' group-effort "Book Rules" or Toots and the Maytals' extroverted "Pressure Drop"? And is it a true singer-songwriter song if the singing and songwriting are split between two individuals, even (formerly) married ones such as Richard and Linda Thompson? And what about that woozily exuberant Mariachi band on "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight"? Nick Drake never used one of those.

Perhaps Blackwell's theme is "terrific songs from the Island Records archives," which is valid enough from a guy with such fine taste. Each of these songs is a classic, and though "All Right Now" does sound out of place, hearing it sandwiched between the Thompsons' night-on-the-town gem and Cliff's soul-stirrer make it sound fresher than it does between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Foreigner during a musty Classic Rock Radio Rock-Block. 

As mastered by Alex Abrash, The Vinyl Series: Volume Two also sounds pretty fresh. Cat Stevens thumping the hollow body of his acoustic and The Heptones' bongos sound almost disquietingly present on flat, quiet vinyl. I wonder what the theme of Volume Three will be...

Review: 'The Vinyl Series Volume One'

In the late fifties, rich kid Chris Blackwell was sailing his boat in the waters off Jamaica when he ran aground in a coral reef. His vessel wrecked, he ended up on shore where a Rastafarian good samaritan nursed him back to health and exposed him to a culture new to Blackwell. With funds provided by his privileged family and a newfound fascination with Jamaican music, Chris Blackwell founded Island Records. The label not only hosted such major Jamaican artists as Toots and the Maytals and Bob Marley, but it also moved into the vanguard of mainstream rock and roll with artists such as Traffic, U2, Roxy Music, John Cale, and King Crimson. Blackwell also produced the smash hits remake of Millie Small's "My Boy Lollypop", the record that introduced most people outside of Jamaica to the loping, joyful rhythms of ska when he leased it out to Fontana Records in 1964. 

So Chris Blackwell knows his music and is a pretty good choice to curate his own compilation series. Although Island's The Vinyl Series does not exclusively lean on choice cuts from the Island archives, the first volume does lean on choice cuts exclusively. Blackwell devotes the majority of the disc to the ska and reggae that first excited him with a couple of essentials later included on Island's The Harder They Come soundtrack, two each from superstars Toots and the Maytals and Desmond Dekker, and Millie Small's breakthrough. He also stretches out a bit with a smattering of soul classics (Bob & Earl's "Harlem Shuffle", The Soul Sisters' "I Can't Stand It", and Inez & Charlie Foxx's "Mockingbird") as well as a pair from The Spencer Davis Group. If nothing else, The Vinyl Series Volume One would be a great soundtrack to a hot Mod party. 

It's also a well-produced piece of plastic. The vinyl is flat and quiet and the spindle hole is correctly centered. The music sound as rich and clear as if it had been produced last week. The heavy-grade inner sleeve features informative notes. All in all, The Vinyl Series Volume One is a rocksteady start to what promises to be an interesting series with future installments reportedly devoted to such Island subgenres as prog, folk, hard rock, glam, and singer-songwriter stuff.