The Congos - Cock Mouth Kill Cock
Artist : The Congos
Album : Cock Mouth Kill Cock
Year : 2006
Genre : Reggae
Source : CDDA
Label : explorer recordings
CatNr : EXPCD022
URL : n/a
Date : 29-04-2006
Quality : VBR
Size : 67,8 MB
Time : 49:07 min
01 Cock Mouth 03:41
02 Gods Kingdom 03:59
03 Watch And Pray 03:23
04 Grandma Say 03:27
05 River Beng Come Down 03:40
06 Citizen Of The World 03:53
07 Some A Thief 03:32
08 Rasta She Want 03:24
09 Rastafari Is His Name 03:15
10 Heaven Rejoice 03:48
11 Out Of The Clouds 03:35
12 Chasing Dreams 03:26
13 Throw Down Your Armour 03:16
14 Take It To The Max 02:48
Some 30 years ago the Congos recorded Heart of the Congos, one of the
greatest roots reggae albums ever to come out of Jamaica, with producer
Lee "Scratch" Perry at Perry's Black Ark Studio in Kingston. Heart of
the Congos was such a complete package that the Congos have been hard
put to come anywhere that near the sun ever since, and while it would be
tempting to say that this new album finally puts them back into rarefied
air, the truth is that albums like Heart of the Congos are products of a
particular time and place and finding that exact sweet spot again is
probably close to impossible. What Cock Mouth Kill Cock (the title is a
Jamaican proverbial saying that essentially means, watch what you say,
it could be your undoing) does do, however, is directly embrace Heart of
the Congos' legacy and history, which is probably as close as the Congos
are ever going to get to actually repeating it. The group has
essentially been a solo outlet for singer Cedric Myton for some time
now, but here he brings the other original vocalists, Watty Burnett and
Roy Johnson, back to the fold and the reunited Congos tackle 14 new
songs written in the old roots style over vintage rhythms originally
done by producer Bunny Lee back in the 1970s, and the result of all this
deliberate nostalgia connects back to Heart of the Congos like an almost
fitting coda. Almost. When the album with Perry was recorded in 1977,
Myton was simply one of the Congos -- albeit the member with the
ether-rattling high lead tenor -- and since then he has become the
Congos entire, which means that Burnett and Johnson do sing here, but
they aren't given a lot to do, and Cock Mouth Kill Cock falls short of
the brilliant ensemble singing that gave Heart of the Congos such a
timeless feel. That Cock Mouth even echoes and references that feel
makes it one of the best Congos releases in years, however. It's just so
darn hard to reach the sun when you're constantly standing in the shadow
of a monument. Highlights include the brightly skipping "Grandma Say,"
the near-majestic "River Beng Come Down" (which sounds like an
unfinished outtake from Heart of the Congos), and the hopeful, buoyant
"Chasing Dreams."