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Fire House Rock (Shanachie, 1980)

Not to be confused with their Reggae ina Firehouse (see below), Fire House Rock (a play on the name of the Waterhouse district in Kingston, Jamaica) is generally considered -- along with Wild Suspense -- one of the Wailing Souls' best,  and with good reason.  If you have Shanachie's excellent Very Best of, then you know how classic the righteous, dark "Kingdom Rise Kingdom Fall" is (also on that collection is the title track to Fire House Rock, but that song has never done much for me).  However, don't think that because you already have 20% of this album (if you have Very Best of) that it isn't worth paying for the other 8 tracks.  One listen to "Oh What a Feeling" should convince you quickly of the value of this set.  If this bouncy sing-along doesn't put you in a good mood, you must be dead or deaf.  Almost as good (and similarly jubilant) are "Act of Affection," "Who Lives It," and "Fool Will Fall."  While much of Fire House Rock has a carefree love song vibe (with big bouncing bass lines and crashing drums in pre-digital dancehall "Junjo" Lawes fashion), the band gets more serious on strong tracks like "Busnah," "Run Dem Down," and the aforementioned "Kingdom Rise Kingdom Fall."  There's little doubt that if you're a Wailing Souls fan, this album is a must-have, and if you're not a Wailing Souls fan, you should be.

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Inchpinchers (Greensleeves, 1982)

*GUEST REVIEW*
I'll get right to the point: Inchpinchers is a gorgeous album from the late classic period for roots reggae, and it reaches heights for the Wailing Souls only exceeded by Wild Suspense and their finest release, Firehouse Rock.  In style and sound, this album is closest to Firehouse Rock. It works very much the same ground: slow, soulful roots riddims with tight, almost ghostly harmonies floating over the top; deep, deep bass; twangy guitars; and plenty of reverb and echo in the mix. You could mix these tracks into Firehouse Rock, and they would sound perfectly at home on that album. Really the only thing that differentiates the two is the spiritual, almost Biblical tone of many of the Firehouse songs -- the lyrics and mood here are a bit lighter overall -- and the very slightly lower quality of the material. Still, songs like the brooding "Don't Get Lost" and the classic "Things and Time" take a backseat to few other reggae tunes. Small elements like the druggy organ on "Tom Sprang" and the beautiful horns on "Things and Time" make this album more satisfying and unique than some of the Souls' later work (which I also love, at least through the mid-eighties or so). It's not quite the album that Firehouse Rock is, but anyone who enjoys that album at all should feel very comfortable with Inchpinchers, which is as close to more-of-the-same as the Wailing Souls ever released.

- Dale Cooper

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The Very Best of The Wailing Souls (Shanachie, 1990)

This is a textbook for quality roots, making the Wailing Souls' '90s pop-tinged output all the more baffling and disappointing.  Classic melodies, supple harmonies, righteous themes, and a raw edge makes tunes like "Jah Jah Give Us Life," "Kingdom Rise Kingdom Fall," "Who No Waan Come," and "They Don't Know Jah" (which, amazingly, was not previously released on an album) unforgettable.  As with any "best of" album, there are omissions; most notably the material from the seminal Very Well, as well as some of the best works on Fire House Rock.  Still, the Wailing Souls have produced enough great material in their career that the omissions aren't missed terribly.  Taken from recordings ranging from the mid '70s to the mid '80s, these tracks (arranged more or less in chronological order) show that, as expected, the stronger, more gritty material was earlier in the band's career.  Still, that doesn't discount the caliber of '80s songs like "Things and Time," "Stop Red Eye," and "Baby Come Rock," which have a lighter, more fun tone.

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Reggae ina Firehouse (Live & Learn, 1991)

Unlike many '70s reggae groups, The Wailing Souls maintained their solid level of quality into the '90s, as Reggae ina Firehouse displays.  Several songs on this album could easily be mistaken for work they did in the '70s, the roots harmony sound is so vintage -- "Wash Mouth," "Cherry Ripe," and "Who's Running" being particularly strong.  Synth effects liven up and bring into the '80s -- er, the '90s -- songs like the superb "It Bad fe True."  Meanwhile, a surprisingly large number of love songs are thrown in -- many being mediocre, but the slow winin' "Nice One" and "For You" help the overall package.  Wailing Souls fans in particular should get this album -- as none of the songs are on the Very Best of compilation -- and even those who aren't big fans should find some enjoyment "ina firehouse."

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Wild Suspense (Island, 1995 [orig. released 1979])

Upon listening to Wild Suspense, it immediately has the feel of a classic.  It has the great blend of popular appeal and rootsy reality that great groups like Steel Pulse, Aswad, and Black Uhuru had at their heights.  More than any of these groups, though, the Wailing Souls' allure lies in its vocals and melodies.  Winston Matthews' great gruff lead vocals in "We Got to Be Together," for example, bespeak a sincerity that draws in the audience.  The united harmony of the group is likewise enticing on the hit "Bredda Gravalicious," while Matthews demonstrates his remarkable ability to write wondrous melodies in tracks like "Very Well" and "They Never Know."  Wailing Souls' voices have just the right mix of low-key sweetness and brash discordance, both on display in "Something Funny."  Added to this re-release of Wild Suspense are 7 dub cuts, the inclusion of which actually detracts from the album as a whole.  Since the strength of the songs lies in their vocals, the music by itself is not terribly magical.  Only "Bredda Gravalicious" and "Very Well," which have strong musical elements, fare well.

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Face the Devil (Trojan, 1995 [orig. released 1981])

Given how much I enjoy the Wailing Souls' work from this era and the fact that Face the Devil was backed by the mighty Roots Radics, I’m surprised at how much this album bored me.  I have to place some of the blame on producer Linval Thompson, who usually presents a pretty understated sound (particularly on his own material), but here the results are numbingly bland – especially with three dry dubs included.  Of course, much of blame also falls on the group itself, whose songwriting seems to be on autopilot on tunes like “Don’t Be Downhearted,” “Mr. Bigmore,” and the title track, which all have the Wailing Souls sound but little of the appeal; they’re just echoes of the group’s best work.  As such, nothing here is truly bad – nothing like their ‘90s pop ventures – but it’s all so dreary, and even the best stuff on Face the Devil, such as “Rudie Say Him Bad,” “Penny I Love You,” and “Who Da (Waan Come)” are merely OK.  It should be noted that Face the Devil repackages the group’s 1981 album Wailing with three bonus tracks (the last three), which are not performed by the Wailing Souls.  These are Viceroys tunes, two of which can be found on the Viceroys' Trojan release We Must Unite.  Why?  A more important question is “Do we care?”

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Reggae Legends Volume 1 (Artists Only!, 1999)

This album essentially picks up where The Very Best of leaves off.  Although the group has not had many hits since the mid '80s, this King Jammy-produced album -- originally released in 1990 under the title Stormy Nights -- shows that their talent had diminished little by the end of the decade.  Their sound didn't change much with the change in producer, even though Jammy is better known for dancehall than for roots reggae.  Reggae Legends Volume 1 contains simple, straightforward roots with Wailing Souls' typically solid yet subtle melodies and an ever-so-slight digital touch, as in the bizarrely likeable buzzing that permeates the catchy "Fire Coal."  The songs here generally aren't as fiery or overtly conscious/righteous as much of the group's earlier work, with love songs like "You Please Me," "Pour Your Love," and "Where Do I Stand" carrying a large part of the album.  The well-known classics that make up Very Best of and Wild Suspense are not present on Reggae Legends Volume 1, but it's still pretty darn good.

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Equality (MusicBlitz, 2000)

Talk about your pleasant surprises.  Whereas some '70s classic roots bands who fell prey to the pop bug in the '80s and '90s  have made recent comebacks that fizzled, Equality is a genuine return to their '70s sound.  It is a rootsy, righteous, resounding success.  There is a slight digital edge (with drum machines and the like) on songs like "Speaking of Time," "Down on Your Knees," and "Don't Say" (the only tune with a straight dancehall rhythm), so this album doesn't sound exactly like their '70s work, but it's darn close, and certainly several notches above '90s albums like Live On and All Over the World.  I'll have to do a study sometime of the inversely proportional relationship between the quality of a reggae album and its release on a major (non-reggae) label.   Luckily, MusicBlitz isn't what I'd call a major label, so The Wailing Souls seem to have been freed from the shackles of the pressure to put out something that will cross over to the masses.  Virtually every track is good -- full of emotional vocals and a classic horn-driven roots sound -- particularly "Not for Us," "Back of My Hand," "Artificial," and the title cut. 

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Square Deal (Studio One, 2003)

*GUEST REVIEW*
This is a pretty exciting return to form for the Wailing Souls, who have done sporadically interesting but generally lower quality work for the last two decades. Re-teaming with Studio One prompts the duo (no longer a trio, or quartet as they were long ago) to do old-fashioned, throwback roots reggae. The harmonies are thinner than they used to be, but the Souls are still in fine voice, and the riddims sound like they could have been recorded in 1979 as easily as today, with drums heavy on the reverb, thudding bass, and guitars and organs popping in and out of the mix. As a bonus the tunes are all new -- no recycling of past glories as aging roots groups often do (and the Wailing Souls themselves have occasionally been guilty of). The album starts stronger than it finishes, but no part of it is unlistenable, and no track here breaks the lovely mood of the whole thing. One minor caveat: there are flaws with both packaging and mastering here. The CD looks like a cheap bootleg and has numerous typos in the liner notes, which unfortunately will keep some away from it. Also, the opening title track -- one of the strongest here -- has strange bursts of static or distortion in it. I bought a second copy of this CD and found that both copies had the same problem, so it appears it's either in the master mix, or on the production master they used to manufacture the CDs. It's problematic, but shouldn't detract too much from an otherwise very strong album. (And for my own purposes, I edited together a clean version of the track to remove the distortion; thank you boys for singing the first verse again later in the song!)

- Dale Cooper

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Souvenir From Jamaica (Artists Only!, 2003)

Following on the heels (not too closely, as it took 3 years) of their wonderful comeback album Equality, the Wailing Souls’ Souvenir From Jamaica was eagerly anticipated by the group’s devoted fans.  Well, two good pieces of news: 1) This album should allay any fears that the group would return to their pop sound of the ‘90s.  Even if there are a couple of pop flourishes, every track on Souvenir remains true to the reggae sound.  And 2) To quote Tony the Tiger, “It’s grrrreat!”  Easily a worthy follow-up to Equality.  The songs are split fairly evenly between fun party grooves/love songs and more somber, righteous tunes, and while you’d naturally assume that The Wailing Souls would be more adept at the latter, it’s actually the lighter, more freewheeling tracks that shine brightest.  (Perhaps this is why some people haven’t really warmed up to this set.)  The title cut is a tranquil new classic with a throwback sound whose message of national pride should qualify it for being the new theme song for the Jamaica Tourist Board, while “Slip & Slide” is an outright jam with pop appeal that shows that it doesn’t always take dancehall reggae to get the party started.  “You Are the Woman” and “Bus Stop,” meanwhile, set an effective mood for a lovers romp, and “Got to Move,” though repetitive and lyrically deficient, nonetheless is quite catchy.  The more cultural tunes, meanwhile, are solid, but in comparison, they come off as a little flat.  “Play the Tape,” “Make That Change,” and “I Shall Not Want” in particular are the culprits – although admittedly, it’s more about them being overshadowed by the greatness of the remaining tracks than about their lacking in quality.  The rootsy “World Abomination” and “Nothing Comes Easy,” plus “Back Door,” which has a bouncy lovers rhythm but conscious anti-establishment lyrics, pick up any slack.  (I would be remiss if I failed to mention that the transition from the relatively lascivious “Slip & Slide” to the pious “I Shall Not Want” is a poor choice.  Going from “Baby, let’s slip and slide on the backside, let’s get wild” to “Jah is my shepherd; I shall not want” just makes me feel like a creep.  I repent already!)  All in all, it great to see that the Wailing Souls’ return to their roots wasn’t a “one and done” kind of thing.  In fact, the quality of their work is as strong as it’s ever been. 

Live in San Francisco: Classic Jamaican Flava (2b1, 2006)

The San Francisco-area 2b1 label deserves credit for being ambitious enough to issue concert CD/DVD sets -- a logical packaging strategy in which labels aren't always willing to invest.  As with the Junior Kelly live album on 2B1, the CD opens with a dark, hip-hop-skewed remix --in this case, "Bandits" -- with a brooding bass line (similar to rapper Paris, also from the Bay Area; coincidence?) that adds an edge you don't normally associate with the Wailing Souls.  Otherwise, the song list is the same on both the CD and DVD.  On the DVD, the group's performance isn't especially dynamic, but the songs don't particularly call for leaping all over the stage.  The film stock is grainy, which was annoying at first, but it actually adds a vintage feel that makes the concert seem older than it is.  The selection of tunes is skewed slightly toward the group's new(er) -- i.e., '90s -- material, but we're still treated to the classic roots of "Jah Give Us Life," "Things & Time," "Kingdom Rise Kingdom Fall," "Fire House Rock," and the wonderful, overlooked "No Big Thing" from Lay It on the Line.  While '90s works like Live On, All Over the World, and Psychedelic Souls disappointed longtime fans with a more pop inclination, this live set manages to pick some of the best of their worst -- including "Bandits," the romantic "You Ain't Leaving," the rousing "Shark Attack," and "War Down at the Pawnshop" (actually a remake of their own "War Deh Round a John Shop").  The more rare "Diamonds & Pearls" (not the Prince tune) is a nice addition, as is "Lady You Don't Know," from Tension, a more highly regarded '90s album.  The soul cover "Na Na Hey," meanwhile, is an appropriate message to end a concert, but it doesn't mean it's particularly interesting to hear.  Still, even without any tunes from the group's strong 21st century albums, Classic Jamaican Flava shines with the type of magic that made the Wailing Souls the legends they are.