Jimmy Cliff: Rebirth

Jimmy Cliff: Rebirth

2012

Universal/Sunpower/Hip-O

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. World Upside Down  2. One More  3. Cry No More  4. Children's Bread  5. Bang  6. Guns of Brixton  7. Reggae Music  8. Outsider  9. Rebel Rebel  10. Ruby Soho  11. Blessed Love  12. Ship is Sailing  13. One More (Alt. Version)



It was late 2012 and we were in dire times...The Great recession lingered on...

Twinkies disappeared from Store Shelves...

...and there was no hockey to be found on TV...

The only ray of light was the release of Jimmy Cliff's "Rebirth"...



I wonder why it took so long for someone to get the bright idea (apparently the late Joe Strummer's ) to pair the old-school reggae/ska artist and with Rancid's Tim Armstrong who excels at invoking the classic Jamaican sounds... He's not just some guy in a Bob Marley shirt, paying lip-service to reggae ...No, he's consistently nailed the genre in ways that true Ska fans can appreciate. This makes a lot more sense than the normal strategy of teaming up a Reggae icon with tired-sounding rappers over chintzy digital backing or having them wreck once-classic songs just for the sake of having a duet with Sting or Gwen Stefani to sell an extra album or two...

This is so striking because there's none of that here...If someone played me "Children's Bread" or "One More" and told me they were unreleased 70's tracks I probably wouldn't question it much...When I first heard "One More" I figured it must have been a re-recorded classic I had missed out on, or maybe a cover of an obscure chestnut, but no, it's a recent composition, meaning that one of the greatest 60's ska songs I've ever heard was written and recorded in 2012. It's almost impossible to process that this song came out the same year as "Gangnam Style"...

There's a lot of goods here..."Bang" threatens to erupt into punk rock but it never quite happens, still it's easily one of the hardest-hitting moments in Jimmy's discography...A menacing surf-rock riff hovers menacingly, as Jimmy pushes his falsetto to their ragged limits...

I also love "Our Ship is Sailing." It actually reminds me of the spiritually uplifting lighter reggae that he was doing in the mid-to-late 70's, but with a chorus hook that's sharper than anything he was doing at the time..."Rebel Rebel" also has an ridiculous abundance of catchy melodies...I can only describe it as "Jimmy Cliff Concentrate" as it's everything you've ever loved about him but compacted into the tightest three minutes possible...

 I should probably talk about the cover songs here, since they seem to get most of the attention...The opening cover of Joe Higgs' "World Upside Down," although incredible, isn't a surprising choice, but watch the world fold into itself as Jimmy covers a song the Clash wrote about a movie he starred in...

Although it might sound a bit gimmicky in theory, once you put it on, and hear that skanking acoustic guitar and hear Ivanhoe himself sing those lyrics, it's a gamble that paid off big...Same with his cover of Rancid's "Ruby Soho." The punk guitars are extracted and replaced with a gentle bounce, and it's a lot of fun to hear Jimmy sing the song's wordy melody...

If you're into early 70's Jamaica (or Tim Armstrong's "A Poet's Life) don't miss out on this one. You don't get reggae albums like this anymore, so take the time to appreciate it.  Let's hope the other living greats of reggae got word of "Rebirth"'s Grammy win and team-up with Tim...I'm looking at you, Toots Hibbert!

 I hope this isn't the end of the Cliff/Armstrong collaboration...Please, "One More...One More"...

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