Natty Dread A Weh She Want

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A collection of Horace Andy's cuts with producer Tapper Zukie, the great Natty Dread a Weh She Want finds the haunting singer at a time when dancehall was overtaking roots music. Zukie's contribution to keeping the roots spirit alive during this time can't be understated. Besides Andy, he was cutting tracks with Beres Hammond, Dennis Brown, and many other waning roots superstars. Zukie's driving riddims were designed to compete with the dancehall upstarts, but he never put a rootsman in too slick surroundings and resisted cheese like it was the plague. Andy was between his heralded 1977 album In the Light and his now very in vogue early-'80s work with the Wackie's label. Looking back from 2006, it's hard to understand why this album fell through the cracks, since the title cut was a revolution at the time in Jamaica. Sometimes called "Pretty Young Girl," sometimes "She Wants Me," "Natty Dread a Weh She Want" finds the singer yearning for love over an update of Alton Ellis' "Hurting Me" riddim. The updating riddims device would soon explode thanks in no small part to the track's success. Andy's trend-setting cut is right up there with his breakthrough hit "Skylarking," and the rest of the album is nearly as strong, featuring a winning mix of smooth lovers rock and conscious, harder cuts like the great "Freedom" and the even better "(Stop Your) Brutality." This is the lost era of Horace Andy, but it certainly isn't because the material was substandard. ~ David Jeffries