This just sounds like FUN. I'm not sure what I was expecting - maybe something heavy, or laborious, or serious. But there is nothing here but unadulterated joy. I suppose it hadn't occurred to me that the story would start in the sixties, but here we are. It has a lightness, an almost Northern Soul vibe which sounds made for the dancefloor.

This is a sound that has much more in common with the Stax Museum in Memphis than it does with "Take Me To Your Dealer" tee shirts or Notting Hill Carnival. It has soul. It has feeling. Something about generic (UB40?) reggae has always seemed quite lumpen to me, devoid of any subtlety or nuance. Not this album. This is a crooning, swooping sound.

Incredible to hear the early, almost primitive, rendition of One Love, a song that I would hesitate to leave playing on the radio if it came on. Again, it has an authenticity in this version, a feeling of soul, that lifts it above the version I'm used to.

William Bell is another Memphis/Ardent connection. There is just something about this that has confounded my expectations. I guess that whole mid-sixties thing was the same everywhere. The Beatles were doing Yesterday and Ticket to Ride, but Wings and the Concert for Bangladesh were less than ten years away, so I think we can forgive Bob some extended live jams, right?

This is a great start. I am already a convert! Reel me in, Bob!