Review: Trojan Box Set: Ska Revival

England's Trojan Records is a sweet source for Jamaican Music; ska, rocksteady, dub, lovers and roots, releasing almost 50 affordable box sets of everything from Ganja Reggae to Nyahbinghi (bless you!). I own the Rock Steady box and my prize possession, the Ska Revival 3-disc box. The allmusic reviewer seems to be offended by it but for a 2nd wave fanatic like me this is a gold mine. Search for Ska Revival at the Trojan site to listen to samples of each track, and if you want to buy this please don't ask for a box of Trojans.

The collection focuses on the best bands of the 2-Tone era and contains studio and live tracks not readily available to the average ska fan who bought the major albums and splurged on Dance Craze . It does not contain Madness or The Bodysnatchers, which means they consulted me in my sleep. Madness were pricks and posers while The Bodysnatchers never measured up. You have the Beatles and Rolling Stones of Ska, The (Special) Beat and The Specials (also as the Coventry Automatics and Desmond Decker and The Specials), The Selecter (their hits make me forgive the filler) and Bad Manners (much better when not being a novelty cover band).

All the great songs are here in versions you've probably never heard, and the obscure tracks are all keepers. 2nd wave Ska was the happiest music going, even and somehow especially when Buster Bloodvessel sings about wanting to murder his girlfriend in the sucker-in-love classic "Lorraine".

If it gets any better than this your priorities are all screwed.