Lady Lex - Is This Love (Peckings Records)

The fact the Peckings brothers have amassed a veritable treasure trove of vintage Treasure Isle riddims should be common knowledge by now and it's these riddims that provide 'Is This Love' with a very high recognizability factor. Listing all riddims that were used would take us too far, so we opted for a selection of the most infectious songs instead. The riddim hiding behind title track 'Is This Love' is that of 'Inez', a fairly obscure ska-instrumental by Lester Sterling and Tommy McCook (see also Bitty McLean's 'My lover's Call'). For the delicious 'At Last' (a rocksteady version of the blues-classic immortalized by Etta James) the Peckings brothers used the riddim of The Melodians' 'You Have Caught Me'. Another recommended track is 'Sins Away', on the riddim of Alton Ellis' 'If I Could Rule This World', and 'Love Doctor', an excellent song over the Can't Stand It riddim, should definitely not be missing from this review either. We'll end our selection fittingly with closing track 'Responsibility', an introspective song over the Ain't That Loving You riddim. Even though 'Is This Love' is teaming with great lovers tunes, it were roots tracks like 'Drastic Times', 'Colours Of The Rainbow' (sounding almost like an old Ariwa production) and especially the magnificent 'Book Of Job' (over the Break Up To Make Up riddim) that really caught our attention. For once the description "instant classic" almost seems inadequate to describe this release!