Artist: BOB MARLEY
Album: THE ANTHOLOGY (2CD)

Release date: 2006/ 2012
EAN/UPS: 0803341349827
Media type: CD

There are countless Bob Marley collections issued every year, some legal and some not, most of them continuously recycling the Wailers' pre-Island Records Jamaican recordings. These compilations can vary in sound quality as well as internal coherence, and they frequently come with little or no track annotation, making buying one a complete crap shoot. This two-disc set from Cleopatra Records at least has liner notes, although the notes are more general than specific, and the tracks presented, since they draw on Marley & the Wailers' work with producer Lee "Scratch" Perry in 1970, 1971 and later in 1977, cohere well, making this a decent anthology, if not exactly the end all and be all of Marley sets. Included are gems like "Sun Is Shining," "Kaya" (plus a "Kaya" scat version with a truly annoying bell added), Curtis Mayfield's "Long Long Winter," the odd and ominous "Mr. Brown," the proud and defiant "Soul Rebel" and the ever graceful "African Herbsman," all from 1970 and 1971, and the late season Marley/Perry collaborations "I Know a Place" and "Who Colt the Game" from 1977. It's hard to argue with the music presented here, which is perhaps Marley's best, eclipsing anything he did for Island, but while this is an undeniably decent set, it duplicates countless other Marley collections out there, and most fans will (or should) already have all of this stuff.

DISC 1:

1. Natural Mystic
2. Rainbow Country
3. I Know A Place
4. Concrete Jungle
5. Trenchtown Rock
6. Sun Is Shining
7. Keep On Skanking
8. Satisfy My Soul
9. Keep On Moving
10. Long Long Winter
11. Don't Rock My Boat
12. Mr. Brown
13. My Cup
14. Love Light Shining
15. Who Colt The Game

DISC 2:

1. Lively Up Yourself
2. Small Axe
3. More Axe
4. Duppy Conqueror
5. Kaya
6. Kaya (Scat Mix / Kaya Version)
7. Turn Me Loose
8. Soul Rebel
9. Run For Cover
10. Picture On The Wall
11. African Herbsman
12. Man To Man
13. Jah Is Mighty
14. Stand Alone
15. Send Me That Love