Released 15/09/2010. through Wall of Sound



You only have to look at The Jolly Boys to know that you’ll like them.  Five snappily dressed Jamaican dudes, most in trilby’s or top hats, each with deep, leathery skin that seems to tell of a lifetimes of late nights and later mornings.  They look like the sort of people you’d want to sit next to on a plane.

The backstory is pretty good too- originally formed back in the late 40's/early 50’s, a group of friends that played mento, the original Jamaican folk music, consisting of banjo, guitar, maracas and a rumba box at hotels and, so the story goes, parties at Errol Flynn’s gaff.  Together ever since, albeit with a line-up that swung and changed with the passing of members, they played all the big hotels across Jamaica, recorded a handful of albums and became local heroes.   

Fast-forward to 2008 and they become the house band at the GeeJam hotel, owned by music impresario Jon Baker, who decides the time is ripe for The Jolly Boys to go international and co-produces the album of covers that is Great Expectations.

You’ve probably already heard their version of ‘Rehab’ which has been pinged this way and that across the internet like a hookers kecks when Rooney’s got his Visa out.  It’s something of a shame they’ve only just released it as it is a vintage summer tune, and absolutely perfect for Minott’s clipped delivery; his stress on the ‘hab’ is now the only way I can recollect that chorus.  The gentle, lilting nature of the mento style is also a perfect fit for the natural reggae beat of Winehouse’s calling card.

‘Hanging On The Telephone’ is another triumph, and Minott truly makes it his own with the ‘oh why can’t we talk again’ refrain one of the most memorable moments of the record.  ‘Nightclubbing’ is primarily so good because you can imagine that it’s originally their song, that they are the ones jiving and glamming it up, not the ‘orrible monstrosity that is Ms Jones.

‘I Fought The Law’ is a little more complex, with trumpets, some banjo riffing and an awesome delivery that is so sandpapery you'd think it would cut his throat,  while the banjo on ‘Blue Monday’ is so naturally wed it’s seems a surprise it hasn’t been done before.

As an album, this has got bundles of attitude and what could have been a novelty record is anything but as Albert and the rest of the lads make most of the songs their own.  You suspect its particular triumphs- ‘Passenger’, ‘Rehab’, ‘I Fought The Law’, ‘Blue Monday’- will be popping up in Sunday afternoon DJ Sets across the land, and get only appreciation from even the most ardent fans of Iggy, Amy, Joe and the Manc Boys.  Whether or not it’ll get repeated plays on this stereo is another thing, but as an attempt to bring a previously underplayed musical style to an international audience, it has to be counted as a triumph.





6/10

Posted In Album Reviews, Sep 11 2010. Words - Simon