Anthology

With his heart-stopping falsetto and deeply soulful vocal phrasing, the prolific Cornell Campbell can be counted as one of reggae’s most gifted and influential vocalists. He's played a major role in almost every stage of Jamaican music: cutting blazing ska sides for Coxsone Dodd in the early ‘60s, chillingly beautiful rocksteady with The Eternals, and deeply devotional Rastafarian anthems with producers like King Tubby, Joe Gibbs, and Bertram Brown. Attack Records’ deftly compiled 46-track anthology picks up the thread of Campbell’s career in 1972, when he'd left the seminal vocal group The Eternals to cut a series of singles with Bunny Lee. The collection follows him through to the ‘80s, which found Campbell's popularity undiminished thanks to his formidable vocal prowess which sat well with the dancehall era's tough-minded ethos. Though lovers of rocksteady will be understandably disappointed by the lack of selections from Campbell’s early years, this set nonetheless is a positive embarrassment of musical riches and contains some of his finest recordings.