Shabba Ranks and Friends

On Shabba Ranks And Friends, Shabba brings his deep ragga voice and pop/soul/hip hop treatment to a range of diverse songs, most of which were recorded six or seven years ago. Early '90s tracks like 'Mr Loverman' - featuring the voice of Chevrelle Franklin - and 'House Call (Your Body Can't Lie to Me)' - a duet with Maxi Priest - get a good shake out, but only a couple of 1999 tracks - the smooth 'Mr G' and 'Universal Love' - give us a sense of Shabba's current interest in returning to traditional-style reggae.

KRS-1 of Boogie Down Productions makes a guest rap appearance on 'The Jam', and in 'Shine Eye Gal' Mykal Rose contrasts his beautifully high pitched West Indian reggae with Shabba's own gravelly baritone. 'Two Breddrens', a duet with Chubb Rock, is a danceable hip-hop groove, and 'Slow And Sexy' speaks for itself.

Plenty of songs to choose from here, but the lack of a unifying theme means there's no cohesion. It's like somebody in Epic's marketing department just went through the files, pulled out all the recordings they could find that feature Shabba and somebody else, and just stuck them all on the one CD. The artiste himself doesn't seem to have had much involvement, which ultimately makes Shabba And His Friends - despite a couple of excellent tracks - disappointingly bland.