I Could Have Been a Contender (Trojan, 2004)

*GUEST REVIEW*
The Trojan box set format has been a mixed blessing.  On the one hand, getting fifty tracks for the price of a single album can seem appealing.  However, quality control, poor packaging, recycling of tracks and too many releases have all lessened the appeal of this format.  I Could Have Been a Contender is one of the more interesting Trojan releases.  It's basically an anthology of Jah Wobble's work.  His career as a bassist started as a member of Public Image Limited and then moved to a variety of solo and collaborative projects.  PiL are basically an aggressive prog rock band with a serious slice of dub.  Think early Tortoise on crack or Nomeansno fronted by Mark E Smith.  His playing style is as distinctive as Sherwood's production style.  Wobble loves jazz, dub, global roots music, and kraut rock.  This album showcases some of the musicians he has played with.  Collaborators include Bill Laswell, The Edge, Sinead O'Connor, Natasha Atlas, Brian Eno, and The Molam Laos Group.  Despite the quality of collaborators, Wobble does not usually use producers.  This may explain why I prefer his live shows, which often feature a sound engineer playing the desk dub style.  This is not a straightforward reggae album, but open your ears and join the dots between the progtastic "PiL", the haunting roots of "Shout at the Devil", the Laos dub on Disc 2 and the spacey jazz/dub of Disc 3.  Very few people will love all the tracks on the compilation, but you have to admire Jah's ability to experiment, genre jump, and draw together great collaborators.  I know a purist PiL fan that refuses to listen to any Wobble solo material.  That’s a little harsh, despite the strength of the first three PiL LPs.  There are only two problems with this compilation.  Firstly, someone has allowed Jah to sing on the odd track.  Secondly, the sleeve notes need to be written by a critic or fan rather than the man himself.