Horace Andy - Midnight Rocker (2022) [Official Digital Download]

The first time many listeners outside of Jamaica heard reggae legend Horace Andy was in 1991, on the song “One Love” from Massive Attack’s watershed album Blue Lines. Over a slow drum pattern and an occasionally scratched-in piece of a brass riff from Isaac Hayes’s “Ike’s Mood,” Andy told the tale of an ideal romance, his sweet, lilting voice carrying the song’s melody. Despite the fact that Blue Lines introduced him to pop audiences, Horace Andy had already been a star for two decades, releasing classics like “Skylarking” and recording many sides at Coxsone Dodd’s legendary Studio One facility in Kingston.

Today, at 71 years old, Horace Andy’s voice endures. Time has been kind to the crystal clear tone that has served him throughout his 50+ year career; his latest, Midnight Rocker, is full of soulful cuts with production by British dub pioneer Adrian Sherwood (Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mark Stewart). The album opens with the epic roots tune “This Must Be Hell,” a wailing song hot with pain and frustration. The chorus finds Andy lamenting, “Lord, this must be hell because there’s no peace amongst mankind.” His voice articulates deep sorrow and anguish at the state of the world. In a nod to his Massive Attack collaborators, Andy turns up with a laid-back, earnest cover of “Safe From Harm,” syncopating the original’s rolling, sampled bassline while he reinterprets Shara Nelson’s iconic lead vocal. For his part, Sherwood honors the character and distinctiveness of Andy’s voice by presenting it alongside relatively uncomplicated production and arrangements. Occasionally there are some welcome flourishes of delay that remind us that Sherwood is among the great living dubmasters, particularly skilled at enhancing a recording with dub signature effects.


TRACKLIST

1. Horace Andy - This Must Be Hell
2. Horace Andy - Easy Money
3. Horace Andy - Safe From Harm
4. Horace Andy - Watch Over Them
5. Horace Andy - Materialist
6. Horace Andy - Today Is Right Here
7. Horace Andy - Try Love
8. Horace Andy - Rock To Sleep
9. Horace Andy - Careful
10. Horace Andy - Mr Bassie



Thanks to the Original customer.