Rocking Enternally

Though not terribly well known in the U.S., Kofi has had a steady trickle of reggae hits in England since the demise of her original group, Brown Sugar, in the 1980s. Most of her hits stem from her work with London producer Mad Professor at his Ariwa studio, which has been ground zero for the "lovers rock" style of reggae since its earliest days. But on Rocking Eternally she teams up with the equally well-regarded production team of Mafia & Fluxy, and although their sound is subtly different from Mad Professor's (most notably in its near absence of crazy dubwise flourishes), they still know how to provide the balance of digital smoothness and warm approachability that a voice like Kofi's needs. And her voice is still just as sweet and sexy as it was 25 years ago: on tracks like the brilliant "Knowing U, Knowing Me" and the particularly bedroomy "Give U Up, Never" she sounds simultaneously worldly and sweetly innocent — a killer combination. On "Ability to Love," the producers nicely offset rather syrupy strings with an unusually rock-hard rhythm, and "Life Time Thing" is marred only by a painfully out of tune flute. Do all the tracks sound the same? Pretty much, yes, even by reggae's generous standards. But the pleasure of lovers rock is that it all sounds pretty much the same, which means that it's all equally useful for its intended purpose — and no one sings this style of reggae better than Kofi.