In the days when we all used to swap comp tapes of the stuff we were digging amongst a group of us my brother Miles included “Fanfare” from this album on one of his. It was in the period he was working at MTV if I remember right and had heard it as part of research for his show. When I came across this album a couple of years ago I had to have it. Eric Matthews is a singer, composer and record producer. He had been in the band Cardinal in the early ’90’s and he has worked with the likes of Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow. This, his debut solo album, was released in 1995.

“Fanfare” is a mid-tempo, horn driven anthem sung in a dreamy, low-fi style by Matthews. It’s bloody great and to my great surprise was released by Sub-Pop Records. Now I associate Sub-Pop with the likes of Mudhoney, Nirvana, Tad, Screaming Trees, ya know, noisy, grungy bands, not with orchestrated crooners, but that’s what we have here, an album as un-Sub Pop as it’s possible to imagine.

After “Fanfare” it all gets very much more sedate. The vocals are what can only be described as breathy and the music is a mix of dreamy lo-fi (in style rather than sound, it’s a lush sounding record) Indie with a healthy dose of folk-ish-ness. It’s a very “lying in bed on Sunday morning drinking good coffee and reading about the matters of the day” kinda record, I think that’s the best description I could give it. Have a listen to “Fanfare” below and bear in mind that this is as raucous as it gets. 

Sub Pop…really !

Fanfare - https://youtu.be/brhiO6m6lxw?si=kJbh1HpWcNQMyYLX

He was/is…a legend that is. As Damien Dempsey sang in his anthem “Almighty Love”, “When Bobby Marley sings the downtrodden grow wings”. His influence is still there to see and hear across the Caribbean and Africa. We went on holiday to Barbados in 2014 and his image and music were everywhere.

“Legend” has to be one of the best selling Best of/singles collections there is (a quick Google tells me it’s the best selling Reggae album of all time with over 25 million worldwide sales !). It is very much aimed at the casual Marley fan, not including too many of his rebel songs, really only “Buffalo Soldier”, “Get Up Stand Up”, “Redemption Song” and “Exodus”. The remaining songs are weighted toward his love songs and positive vibes. Which is no bad thing, Marley was a masterful songwriter and singer and the idea of this album, after all, was to shift units and they succeeded in that. It’s a pity they couldn’t find room for a couple of his more righteous singles, maybe “Concrete Jungle” and “Zimbabwe” but that’s just me being nit-picky.

“Legend” is one of the best singles collections there is.

Redemption Song - https://youtu.be/yv5xonFSC4c?si=BaoRbQLv-iMHoEex

I first heard this album when…my Dad bought it. Yes you heard that right. My Dad is very sussed when it comes to music and as a musician he has never said what many mates Dad’s said along the lines of “Turn that rubbish off” or other variations on the same theme. He has told us to turn it down cos we were very likely playing stuff too loud but he’s never expressed ridicule for what we listened to (well, apart from once asking why we were listening to the worst rhythm section he’d ever heard while one of us was playing U2). He bought my brother his first copy of “Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols” and told him it was important and that Johnny Rotten was likely our Bob Dylan. My Dad is pretty damned cool.

Thanks to him I got very familiar with this record, I think I played his copy more than he did. This album and it’s follow up “Kaya” were recorded at the same sessions in London during January to April 1977. Marley had come to London to recuperate after an attempt on is life in Jamaica during a particularly charged General Election pitting Prime Minister Michael Manley (who Marley supported) against Edward Seaga. “Exodus” had been thought of as a song and album title for some time and the song was finally written after Marley was taken with one of Manley’s election slogans “We know where we’re going”.

The album is split into two very different sides. Side 1 contains the Roots/Rebel/Rastafari songs headed up my the gorgeous “Natural Mystic”. It fades in slowly, setting up the groove before Marley intones “There’s a natural mystic blowing in the air, If you listen carefully now you will hear”. 

Side 2 contains more pop based songs and 4 of Marley’s best known. The dance reggae of “Jammin’”, “Waiting In Vain” was a top 30 hit in the UK, “Three Little Birds” and Marley’s mashup of his song “One Love” (originally released as a single by The Wailin’ Wailers in 1965) with Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” have become two of his best known songs.

I was always more drawn to side 1 than 2 but you can’t deny the guy knew how to write a hit as well as songs of rebellion and faith, title track “Exodus”, based on a political slogan and the Biblical story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt as an analogy of the hope Rastafarians could be led to freedom, went top 15 in the UK. Follow up album “Kaya” was a much more poppy affair that cemented Marley as a global superstar but  “Exodus” is the one I reach for.

The Heathen - https://youtu.be/dfwu0iZp7OM?si=rm2BvpomF0cXbCOk