Various Artists - Strictly The Best 60 (VP Records)

As usual, the 25 tracks were neatly divided, with the first CD containing mostly love and some reality tunes, and a second disc with the more dancehall oriented tracks. We won't get into those last tracks, as it's simply not our field of expertise, but it's striking that today's dancehall genre sounds a lot more poppy and less raw than it did a few years ago. Evolution for better or worse? We'll leave the answer to the experts!

On the first disc the opener, a remix of 'Play That Song', an excellent combination tune by Duane Stephenson and Agent Sasco, immediately hits the spot, veterans like Beres Hammond (perfect love tune 'Only One') and Freddie McGregor ('Change My Mind', a revamp of the 1969 Alton Ellis' classic 'Can I Change My Mind') live up to expectations, former The Voice winner Tessanne Chin with 'Breakfast In Bed' delivers a quite convincing version of Dusty Springfield's 1969 original, which already became a reggae hit in the 1988 version by UB40 and Chrissie Hynde, and both former Raging Fyah front man Kumar Bent and the band itself can be found in the track list with 'Lost My Heart' and 'Better Tomorrow'. Romain Virgo also provides another top track with 'Progress', with 'Together We Stand' we finally hear something new from Richie Spice, but our final favorite on this edition of 'Strictly The Best' is 'Babylon Bridge', a delicious combination tune by Spanish trio Emeterians and Ky-Mani Marley from their 'Roots O'clock' album which was released earlier this year.

Lots of listening pleasure and happy holidays from the entire Reggae.be team!