Nightfall Showcase

Album Review

Night Fall was originally issued in Jamaica in 1981. It was a solid winner for two reasons: the excellent production of Lynval Thompson, and the absolutely watertight reggae grooves provided by Roots Radics, then the leading studio band in Jamaica. Osbourne's lyrics and singing were good, but neither was quite up to the standard he had set a few years previously on the epochal Truth and Rights album. This CD reissue presents the original Night Fall in "showcase" style, meaning that several tracks are followed by dub versions and one is presented in an extended "discomix." The label has sweetened the package by adding five bonus tracks, one of them a fine DJ version of Osbourne's "Turn Me On" — on it, producer Thompson comes to the mic to show off his toasting skills and turns the track into an herb anthem titled "Marijuana Tree." This is a fine and well-packaged document of early dancehall reggae.