Funky Kingston

Funky Kingston is one of the best reggae albums made. When listening to it, I'm always impressed by the great voice of Frederick "Toots" Hibbert. The songs are fabulous. Each of the cover tracks ("Louie Louie", "I Can't Believe", "Country Road") is a rewritten version that adds a lot to the original song. Certainly the extended (1975) edition including "Pressure Drop" as one of the best reggae songs ever, is a must listen.

Legendary reggae classic. Toots

Dude this shit is so rad. Old classics and a completely modern sounding reggae Island funkiness that is a total joy to listen to.

Yes hahah, been listening to their country roads cover for so many years. It's so good. Country rooads, take me home- ho- hoame, to da plaace, I belo-hooong, WEST JAMAICAAA, MYMYMYMMAMMAMA! Oh won't you take me go home, country roadss. 5

In the 90s by brother made these fantastic mix cassettes for me, back when media was wierd and fun and listening to music wasn't mainly proscribed among half a dozen tech behemoths, via the ubiquitous pocket hellmouth. He put the title track from this on one, along with (maybe on the same tape, maybe another) Pressure Drop. The former being the absolute banger of this album, by a pretty wide margin to my ears. I like all of it though, very much including the idiosyncratic covers.

Classic Reggae LP, not usually a fan of the genre but this is just a joy to listen to. Good mix of the genre's slower approach with some surprisingly energetic arrangements scattered in. For the album's short runtime it covers an impressive dynamic range, and the covers are well done and a pretty fun addition – Reggae-style "Country Road" feels so right for some reason. Allowed me to slough off some stress for the day and smile, which is what I needed. Great add, yet another overlooked classic missing from the main 1001!

When I put on the first reggae track I was dreading this… but this had funk underpinnings that made this extra groovy in a way that I didn’t mind. Definitely one of the highlights of this genre for me!

Yes. I saw Toots perform at a small/medium sized club in my college town of Lawrence, KS back in the day. He had such a powerful voice. He held the mic far away from his mouth because he could project so well - like he barely needed the mic. Definitely one of my warmest musical memories. RIP Toots.

The absolute cojones needed to call yourself Toots with a straight face

Flawless

A fabulous album that, to my shame, I had not listened to in its entirety before now.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Time tough, Love is gonna let me down, Pomps & pride, Sailin’on

This seems like a classic reggae album. Reading about it now, I didn't realize there were two such drastically different version of this album. Unsurprisingly the streamers have the second US version of this to listen to which is what I listened to. It does seem like this is the more widely reviewed and included on best lists version of the album, but I always would prefer to listen to the original. Definitely having a tough time finding it anywhere, so I guess the second US version will have to do.

Pressure drop started playing and before any vocals started, I was like “why does this sound so familiar?” Once the “ah-ahah-ah” vocals started and I started humming along without really knowing what was coming next, and I realized that this was the original version of the song that Sam Seder uses for his podcast, “The Majority Report”. He originally used the Clash version, I think, then had to switch to a cover of that version by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists due to some kind of copyright issue. So I knew that song, but thrice removed. Just goes to show what a blindspot reggae is for me. Anyway, this is a pretty excellent record which probably should’ve been on the list. Not a huge fan of the Country Roads cover, but mostly because I don’t like that song in any configuration. Regardless, a great submission.

Good reggae and a funny cover of Country Roads

Fun and funky, a laid back sunday spin.

More reggae than funk. Toots & The Maytals were instrumental in bringing reggae to audiences outside of Jamaica, alongside the Wailers of course. Unlike the Wailers, the Maytals had more of a distinctly soulful sound. A maybe a little....country? Yes, a John Denver cover makes the tracklist with a true reggae spin on it. That is, if you're listening to the 1975 version of Funky Kingston. The spotify link on this site auto-directs to the 1975 version that was released in the US, but it only contains three of the original tracks from the 1973 release of Funky Kingston. It's effectively a compilation of the Maytals' best songs from previous albums, but it can be forgiven given that it provides us with the incredible Pressure Drop. And really, what is there to complain about for the compilation version? It's highly praised and rightfully so, with many great reggae songs to chill out to. Lovely listen. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: Yes, replace one of the Wailers albums with this.

This is some good stuff! I'll say it...I enjoy it over Marley.

I went through a reggae phase many years ago. I still enjoy it, but only on occasion. This is a solid album. 3 stars.

Some really fun awesome reggae. Reggaes classic and roots are some of the most enjoyable sounds put to music. This album is a great collection of reggae songs. A Jamaican cover of John Denver’s biggest song is the epitome of good vibes. Overall a fun well made enjoyable album. 7.3/10

Of all the genres in the book, followed by the fewer genres from user submitted records, I know the least about reggae. And I've really only ever heard from Bob Marley who is fine, but not a favorite of mine. This, like Marley, is fine. But I am failing to see the appeal. I just don't hear enough differences between the songs. And, (this is more about me than the music) up swing picking kind of annoys me. But I hesitate to try and rate the relative quality of this due to my ignorance of the genre. This is clearly competent. It's well recorded and I hear the heart that went into it. I just don't "get" it.

Banger

Apparently I’ve listened to this before and mildly enjoyed it

Nice reggae album

A really good reggae album, I’d take this on the orginal list.

Reggae. Ni fu ni fa.

Really don't like reggae but this was decent

It made me look into the lore of Louie Louie, which was nice.