The Best of Barry Brown (Striker Lee, 2000)

Barry Brown is one of those artists who never really broke through in a huge, one of those artists who you've heard of but may not know any of his songs.  There isn't a whole lot of his work that's readily available, making this "best of" collection a welcome release.  The music -- produced by Bunny "Striker" Lee -- is subdued, rhythm-driven pre-digital dancehall reminiscent of Michael Prophet or Linval Thompson, while his airy vocals fall somewhere in the range of Prophet, Horace Andy, and Sugar Minott.  Fans of any of these artists' late '70s and early '80s work may be drawn into Barry Brown's sound, although it's not the most exciting thing in the world to listen to.  Still, tracks like "Fittest of the Fittest," "It Must Be Something," "Tribulation," "Things in Life," and "I'm Not a King" (later a hit for Cocoa Tea), which feature more distinct, catchy melodies than the rest, compliment the strong, simple, bass-heavy beats nicely, giving the hard-edged sound some accessibility.  However, over the course of 21 tracks, it's hard to keep it all quite so interesting, and Best of falters in the latter half.  Frankly, I'm not familiar enough with Brown's work to judge whether or not these tunes truly represent his "best" -- indeed, since it focuses on Bunny Lee productions, it leaves out a good portion of his career -- but it doesn't contain some of his (relatively) well-known tunes, like "Step It Up Youthman," "Put Down Your Guns," "We Can't Live Like This," "Conscious Girl," and "Jah Jah Fire."  Judging from the fact that another Best of (on JA Records) features 10 songs, none of which are present here, the question of what constitutes his best is up for debate.