Pressure Drop: The Golden Tracks

Forget the Maytals, this is all Toots Hibbert taking his amazingly soulful and gospel-tinged voice back to revisit and re-record three of the Maytals' finest songs, “Pressure Drop,” ”54-46 Was My Number,” and “Funky Kingston,” combined with Toots' new versions of John Denver's “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Stevie Wonder's “Higher Ground” and the Police's “Walking on the Moon,” along with assorted ska, instrumental , dance, and dub remixes of each (with the exception of “Walking on the Moon,” which is only featured in a single vocal version). Toots is still Toots, so his vocals are powerful and impassioned here, and while the original Maytals' ska and rocksteady versions of “Pressure Drop” et al have a bit more raw vitality to them, Toots doesn’t drop the ball on these remakes by any means, making this an interesting, if hardly essential, addition to his discography. He always sings like the world is on fire and everything depends on the song. Here’s betting he never changes that. ~ Steve Leggett