U-Brown - Hit Sounds from Channel One

First things first: Hit Sounds From Channel One isn't a collection of U Brown tracks. It's a compilation of tracks from his Hit Sounds label, cut at Channel One at the tail end of the golden era of rockers reggae by the usual revolving cast suspects of JA-Team session players playing under the name of the Revolutionaries.

But it's important to remember that even at the height of the militant message rockers era, reggae remained Jamaican pop music, too. Brown's label apparently specialized in sweet soul crooners--mid-level names like Johnny Osbourne, Al Campbell, Delroy Wilson, and a young Sugar Minott the most prominent--and U Brown's old school toasting isn't exactly hard-edged on the opening "Weather Balloon." His "Me Chat You Rock" has triumphal horn punctuations over a spare riddim but it's merely serviceable, nowhere near as wonderful as the title.

So pleasantly grooving love songs in a pop rockers reggae stylee designed for easy listening and skanking is the nature of the beast here. Carleton Livingston's "Don't Cuss Rasta" offers the hardest social commentary but it's more a cautionary plea for tolerance and the criticism in Campbell's "Mr. Conman" is cut with sweet harmonies. The drums get more militant on Minott's "Steal Away Girl" and Osbourne's singing on the soul classic "Oh Girl" is too straightforward, lacking the heartbreak edge of Eddie Holman's original.

"Weather Report" is an instrumental feature for hornmen Bobby Ellis and Deadly Headly but it doesn't stray far from the song form--neither does the dub version, or any of the dubs by the Revolutionaries with the possible exception of the percussion and sonic bleeps on "Now I Know Dub." It's all Jamaican pop and truthfully it can easily slip right on by, but it's hard to argue with the craftsmanship and professionalism. If you're a sucker for this sound, it's a good collection but trailblazing or really essential it's not. ~ Don Snowden, All Music Guide