Lows & Highs in Bloomington, MN

The final
Creation Rebel
album is very much the son of the preceding
Psychotic Junkanoo
, albeit one that has been stripped of much of the joyous abandon that highlighted that earlier set. Conventional in the same way that a lot of early- to mid-'80s
reggae
albums were, as the
roots
tradition fought a losing battle against the rising tide of
dancehall
, the album is highlighted by
"Lizard" Logan
's sweetly sung
"Independent Man"
(a
Bob Andy
number previously released as a 10" single), but the titular lows are far more in evidence, beginning with
Crucial Tony
's decidedly un-crucial
"A Reasoning."
All of which is not to say that
Lows & Highs
should be filed away without a second thought -- the
dub
mix of
has a spectral aura that ranks alongside the best of
Adrian Sherwood
's period work, while
"No Peace"
and
"Rubber Skirt"
offer up sweetly skanking approximations of "name your own favorite" early-'70s
reggae-pop
(
John Holt
's
"A Love I Can Feel,"
to be precise). ~ Dave Thompson