The Gladiators: Sweet So Till - 1979

 

Another Gladiators album that comes highly recommended by me. In terms of a detailed review, I would be repeating myself from the first three albums of theirs that I have covered, however, and I'm sure you don't want that. Just take my word that it is crucial roots quality.

Fancy some back yard meditation....

Highlights are the delicious Sweet So Till, along with the poppy A Day We Go, the righteous Let Jah Be Praised, the attractive Back Yard Meditation and Holiday Ride. 

It goes without saying that Rasta concerns are still high in the group's lyrical priorities. Introduced instrumentally at this point in the group's were those very early eighties "boing boing" electronic percussion sounds. On a track like Sweet So Till, the group have become softer in their delivery, rather like Aswad did at the same time. The eighties were coming and poppy reggae was seen as a more accessible alternative to roots. There is also a bluesy, melodic harmonica on Sweet So Till and Backyard Meditation, which no doubt irritated those hard-core rootsers who were still stuck in 1975. The Gladiators always delivered their roots with a rhythm and a relaxing vibe anyway. Here they are going down the chilled-out reggae road. 

Those funny wobbly electronic noises appear on No Disturbance. Reggae now had to twiddle its knobs, it seemed. Soon they would all be doing it. I have to say I find this album a most pleasant listen, just as I do Aswad's 1981 A New Chapter album and much of Jacob Miller's "roots with rhythm" output. While I like hard-core, dubby roots, I can fully understand the motivation of these artists to diversify somewhat. A track like A Day We Go, for example, is just an enjoyable, uptempo skank. I really like it, whatever the purists say. I love the rhythm and the subtly lilting guitar. The flute on Press Along harks back to the strings and woodwind backings of early seventies classic UK pop reggae too. You can't go wrong with that, in my opinion.

Red, Green And Gold is roots, for sure, but very much in a turn of the decade style. Its beat is light, pleasurable and unthreatening, despite its fervent message. On Merrily, the organ sounds as if Elvis Costello & The Attractions have come into the studio, all very 1979-80.

I have reviewed four Gladiators albums and I feel these are the four best ones. All of them give you roots with a smile and a melody. 

Drums are played by Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, by the way. I dread to think what he looked like!