Various: One Love — Essential Reggae from the Heart

By REBECCA BARRY

(Herald rating: * * *)


Fans of American R&B will either love or hate this double CD of slow, reggae-fied love songs and soul classics. Three covers of songs by the Temptations, for instance, illustrate just how important Motown was to the development of Jamaican music, and in reggae form they come across as quaint, clever and sometimes kitsch.

Holding these 41 songs together is the production, which on most tracks is faintly crackly, giving the Paragons' version of The Tide is High a nostalgic but tacky Caribbean resort quality — a good thing if you've had enough of the slick stuff on the airwaves.

Elsewhere Alton Ellis, Toots & the Maytals and the Techniques make particularly soulful contributions, Horace Andy and Beenie Man give a more modern take on old classics and Delroy Wilson gets a little too ambitious with a cover of DeLite's It's A Shame but redeems himself with a peppy version of Get Ready. A mixed bag.