Recently in 2010s Category

stingshaggy.jpgYou've known these guys separately for a while now, and Sting of course has a Christmas album under his belt already. For 2019, his current tour partner Shaggy joins him in a reggae cover of the venerable holiday hymn with just a little bit of toasting over it. I'm down with this, as I'm in favor of anything relating to this song that doesn't sound like midnight mass.

Jingle Bell Rock, Ayron Michael (So Bold)

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I'm just discovering Michael for the first time here in 2018. He's a south Florida-based performer whose music is equal parts pop and reggae, and he's bringing us holiday music of this genre on this short album-long EP, you choose. Six of seven tunes are familiar, and there's a smoothly lilting original called "Mistletoe." He acquits himself well on the title song, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Mary's Boy Child," "Silent Night," and Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas." The only tune that foregoes the reggae treatment is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," but the ballad treatment is nicely modern-sounding. Put a sprig of holly on your umbrella drinks while you're listening to this.
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Haven't had many Hanukkah Alerts recently, but this certainly counts. The Temple Rockers, based in Ithaca, N.Y., are an old-school reggae band who have put together an album of traditional Jewish songs for Hanukkah in 2018, with the help of Jamaican vocalists Linval Thompson, Wayne Jarrett and Ansel Meditation. Not sure how Jewish folks feel about the cultural appropriation by the Rastafarians, but Matisyahu has been working this beat for a long time without too much controversy. You hear Thompson's vocals on "Days Long Ago," often known as "Hanukkah O Hanukkah," plus he sings "Spin Dem." Jarrett is heard on "Rock of Ages" and "Almighty Light," and Meditation is the vocalist on "Who Can Retell" and "Do You Know Why?" Instrumentals include "Festival Song," "Pour Some Oil," "A Lickle Jug," and "The Blessing," and the regular members of the band sing "I Have a Candle" and "About the Miracles." I miss the original reggae sounds, and this album provides them in spades, while tipping its hat to Hanukkah. Just noticed while finishing this post that they've already remixed the album and made a dub version titled, wait for it, Festival of Dub.
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This 2014 single is old-school reggae music, a few modern production touches but nothing you wouldn't have heard in the 1970s heyday of reggae. The song itself is a plea to "Black Santa" to make sure the needy get what they need for Christmas, not a new concern but always a worthwhile one, especially delivered with this lilting Caribbean rhythm. Good stuff.

"Miracle," Matisyahu (Epic)

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matisyahu.jpgDo I need to say Hanukkah alert? The popular Jewish reggae performer finally drops a single for the eight nights of light in 2010. It's a festive modern reggae performance with pertinent lyrics, though I probably could have written that without listening to it. Those of you who drop a Hanukkah tune into your mix discs routinely should enjoy having this, and of course those of you for whom Hanukkah is the main holiday should like it as well.
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