Beres Hammond is the Rolls Royce of Reggae music: Smooth, classy, unique, and always better than everything else out there. For over 30 years, Beres has been singing lush songs of love and life, thriving with each succeeding generation, and with every change in the Jamaican musical landscape. For twenty and thirty-something Dancehall fans, Beres is the singer of their generation.
VP Records has condensed the highlights of Beres’ career to date into a 39-song, double disc album called The Ultimate Collection – Can’t Stop A Man. Given the task of culling a mere two disc’s worth of music from such an illustrious and prolific career, VP has done a fantastic job.
Of course, it’s pretty hard to mess up a Best of Beres collection. Even the man’s misses sound like hits. Can’t Stop chronicles Beres’ biggest smashes in roughly chronological order, starting with his 1976 R&B gem “One Step Ahead” to 2002’s “Come Down Father.” In between, Can’t Stop focuses mainly on the stranglehold that Beres held on Reggae and Dancehall during the late ‘80s and 90s. We would have preferred more of his 70s and early 80s classics, but, truth be told, we don’t know which of the included songs we would cut to include them. Beyond “Good Old Dancehall Vibes,” which is a redundant combination of “Can You Play Some More” and “Rockaway,” and “Ain’t That Loving You,” also done better elsewhere in the collection – every song is a keeper. We’re especially glad that 1978’s “Last War,” one of our all-time favorites, made the cut in the face of such stiff competition.
Of the included songs, our quibbles are mainly based on the collaborations. VP thankfully gave us “Tempted To Touch” solo, without Cutty Ranks’ mismatched verses. Just as important, they included Buju Banton’s essential verses on “Who Say,” and “Can You Play Some More.” However, one more slice of Buju was vital: His “just a likkle more time” lyrics on “My Wish.” The song sounds naked without Banton, who has been Beres’ best collaborator over the years. On the other side, we’ve always felt that U-Roy’s babbling detracted from Beres’ quiet determination on “Putting Up A Resistance,” and we could have done without it.
Noted Reggae scribe Rob Kenner is appropriately reverential in the album’s stellar linar notes, which place Beres and his songs in their proper historical context.
THE VERDICT: Simply nothing wrong on this album that a third disc couldn’t fix! Can you play some more?
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