Review: The Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems 2009
Review: The Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems 2009
The best thing about the yearly Biggest Ragga Dancehall Anthems compilations– whose title provides you with all the backstory you need on this venerable series collecting 12 months of gems from Jamaica’s premier pop genre– is that they’re consistent enough to act as comforting listening but restlessly inventive enough to surprise you each time out. The consistency runs deep, right down to the jagged-but-dance-friendly rhythmic structure of the music (for a genre as open to outside influence as any in the world, a dancehall tune is recognizable in seconds). It’s there in everything from vocals that rub the near-parodically masculine against a sugary sweetness to themes that explore with the tension between the need to do bad and the urge to do right.