here I was, browsing through the racks at my local music emporium, trying to pick out a record that would excite my ears and, more importantly, impress the cute girl working the register. Nothing was standing out, so I decided to take one more look through and take off. Alright, thought I, just go grab another Serge album and see if that will do the trick. My arm was outstretched, ready to pick out an album, when two of the store clerks sauntered by, chatting away. “Those Studio One comps are OK, I guess, but they’re kind of obvious, don’t you think? What you want to hear is this,” said one, reaching past me, flipping a couple of albums out of the way and pulling out a record clad in stark monochrome images of a crowd. I kept my cool until they had passed, then slid over to get a closer view. It was a photo of a concert, it seemed, everyone straining over their neighbor’s shoulder to see what was happening on stage, a sea of black faces in dark clothes. One figure stood out of the foreground, however, wearing a crisply starched white shirt and fixing the camera with a clear gaze. It was a remarkably arresting photograph, and I decided to pick up the record on the spot.


Once I got home, I threw my keys on the dresser, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and moved over to my couch to begin the ritual of listening to a new record. I carefully slipped the record out of the sleeve and placed it on the turntable, delicately placing the needle into the first groove. My speakers gave a familiar crackle, quickly replaced by the skipping guitar and insistent organ of the Boris Gardiner Happening’s "Ghetto Funk". Enjoyable, but fairly typical funk, I thought; looks like another case of obscurity-happy record clerks hyping their latest pick. The second track continued in much the same vein, substituting a Jamaican beat and guitar line for the typical funk.


At this point, I was ready to get up and start making dinner. It would be an excellent record to throw on as background music, useful for parties and such, but there wasn’t any reason for me to sit hear and listen closely to every song. Then, a harmonized “yeah” burst out, followed by an unbelievably deep bass rhythm, launching into Carl Bradney singing "Slipping Into Darkness". So intense was this bass that objects were vibrating off the shelf one of the speakers was on. Much less busy in sound than the preceding tracks, it was undeniably compelling, driven largely by that monster of a bass line. I was hooked.


The modus operandi of Darker Than Blue is fairly simple: American soul songs, covered and reinterpreted by Jamaican artists. For most of the songs, this means that the basic vocal melody of each song is kept to provide the bedrock for the session musicians and producers to reshape the rest of the song into a unique combination of American soul and Jamaican reggae\dub. Songs such as Smokey Robinson’s ‘Get Ready’, here sung by Delroy Wilson, remain instantly recognizable yet completely new, given new life by artists with the vision to do more than simply copy the original.


The phenomenal voice of Ken Boothe dominates two tracks here, most notably the Bill Withers classic "Ain’t No Sunshine". Essentially a straight cover, there is one delirious moment when Boothe’s voice disappears in a sea of echoes that is worth the price of the entire compilation. Curtis Mayfield receives the honor of having no less than three artists cover his songs, including Junior Murvin and the prolific producer Lloyd Charmers. Better than either of these is Milton Henry, who sings a lovely version of "Gypsy Woman".


Two productions from the legendary duo of Sly and Robbie close out the compilation. Welton Irie’s "Hotter Reggae Music" is an original song, but one may be forgiven for thinking that it was a Sugarhill Gang cover. The vocal line tiptoes right around the border between homage and a direct steal, but irregardless, the song is a fine piece of work.


Oh, and the cute record clerk (isn’t there always one?) approved of my purchase. “This,” she said, looking straight at me, “was one of the most amazing things I’ve heard recently. You’re going to love it.” Tell me, could I do anything but agree?