The Very Best Of Garnet Silk

Garnett Silk rose out of Jamaica's 1980s dancehall scene, and once he turned from toasting to singing, seemed poised to become an international star when he died in a fire in 1994, a tragedy that robbed the world of an increasingly graceful and elegant artist. Silk worked with an astounding number of producers (on this compilation alone are tracks produced by Danny Browne, Courtney Cole, Peter Chemist, Jack Scorpio, King Jammy, Donovan Germain, Richard Bell, and Bobby Digital), which has led to a lot of left-on-the-cutting-room-floor-type releases since his death, so it's always a delight when a Silk anthology has some internal coherence, which Gold: The Very Best Of does. Essentially it packages the 14 tracks of Gold, which was released in 2000 on the Jet Star imprint Charm, and adds in six additional cuts produced by Bobby Digital, to make an expanded and improved version of the Charm disc. Highlights include the lead track, "Hello Africa" (sometimes listed as "Hello Mama Africa"), the striking "Passing Judgement," "Let's All Spread the Love" (which proves Silk could sing modern uptown R&B with the grace of a Marvin Gaye), "Lion Heart," "Watch Over Our Shoulders" (which manages to be paranoid, wise, and hopeful all at the same time), and "Every Knee Shall Bow." There's still no definitive anthology of this wonderful singer, one that pulls together everything in a uncluttered chronology, but until then, this set makes an adequate beginning.