AMG Review of 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Gregory Isaacs

Jason Birchmeier
All Music Guide

The Gregory Isaacs edition of Universal's Millennium Collection is hardly a best-of in the typical sense, especially considering the breadth of the Lonely Lover's enormous output. That said, it's still a fantastic collection of music, highlighting one of reggae's brightest stars ever. There's not a weak song here, and there are quite a few classics, among them the opening "Night Nurse" (a sort of "Sexual Healing" à la lovers rock), "Private Secretary," "Universal Tribulation," and "The Border." The catch is that the songs all come from the albums Isaacs recorded for Mango, which weren't many -- only three, to be exact: Night Nurse (1982), Out Deh! (1983), and Live '84 (1984). So, no, this is definitely not a career-spanning best-of, but still, the little bit that Isaacs did record for Mango was quite impressive. He was backed by the legendary Roots Radics, and he was very much in his prime during 1982-1983, bringing his patented lovers rock style into the early dancehall era. In addition, Universal has licensed two additional songs for this compilation -- "Top Ten" (drawn from a 1982 African Museum single) and "Universal Tribulation" (from Soon Forward, 1979) -- which bring some extra spice to the proceedings. The two closing inclusions from Live '84 ("Substitute," "The Border") are a nice touch as well and similarly help make this comp more than just a Night Nurse/Out Deh! retread. Granted, at only 11 songs this Millennium Collection disc is skimpy, yet that's the nature of this series and at least these discs come at a budget price. Any way you look at it, however, this Isaacs roundup is solid from beginning to end, even if it's far from definitive (try Universal's Ultimate Collection instead). If anything, it's a nice sampler of the Cool Ruler's early-'80s recordings for Mango, which alone makes it a worthwhile release.