RAS Records
1995
Nothing Like This
About This Album
For the majority of music fans, the intricacies of productions and arrangements seem inconsequential, and most are left to wonder just what all the fuss is about. Well, for a crash course on the subject, listen to Nothing Like This. With time and wear, Dennis Brown's warm tones are growing hoarse, but producer Junior Reid plays to the singer's strength -- his incredibly impassioned delivery. He cossetts Brown in a warm aural environment, creating a toasty glow around even the most stripped-back rhythms, like hot embers in a fireplace. The romantic "There's Nothing Like This" is absolutely smoky and as smooth as warm cognac, heated by the jazzy trumpet solos. The jazzy trumpet reappears as Brown pleads "Come Home," conjuring up a late night at a blues club, enhancing Brown's sweet tones here, even as the taut dancehall rhythms snap out. Reid was so pleased with the results that he had the singer recut it with new lyrics for the passion-strewn "Come Let Me Love You." "Dance Nah Keep" is also a dual-use rhythm, a rough-and-tumble dancehall backing that is revisited later in the set as "Street Kid." Reid himself joins the singer on the former, where the pair expounds on the vagaries of the dancehall scene; the latter Brown brilliantly handles on his own, an autobiographical cultural number fired by the rhythm's militancy.
Track List

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.