The Stubborn All-Stars debut, Open Season, was a gloriously anachronistic wonder--an album of vintage early 60s Jamaican ska made in 1995 by a bunch of New Yorkers with bizarre record collections. It became something of an underground ska hit, attracting the attention of ska-influenced big-timers like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Rancid for its adventurous horn arrangements and rootsy feel.
In a genre like ska, where careers are made through vigorous touring and word-of-mouth credibilty, the expected and perfectly acceptable next move would be to simply continue down that same successful road with the second album, picking up more fans as word of your triumphs spreads. It’s all the more shocking then, that the All-Stars follow-up, Back With a New Batch, would be such a serious departure.
While they haven’t turned their backs on ska altogether, Back With A New Batch, shows the band exploring other facets of Jamaican music, in particular, reggae and rocksteady, as well as diving into 60s pop, punk, and early jazz. “Tired of Struggling” cribs its brooding opening from Bob Marley’s “Rebel Music (3 O’Clock Roadblock),” before sliding into a slow rocksteady groove. Later on “Struggling Version,” the same tune is cleverly recast as dubbed-out dancehall with the Toasters’ Jack Ruby Jr. providing some guest deejaying.
Even when they play the ska, it’s rarely as straight-laced as on their debut. “Because of You” envisions early Jamaica ska crossed with a raucous New Orleans brass band while the harsh, boozy voices of the bigwig guest vocalists (the Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ Dicky Barrett and Rancid’s Tim Armstong, Matt Freeman, and Lars Fredrickson) on “Pick Yourself Up,” contrast beautifully with lead singer Jeff “King Django” Baker’s smooth voice, perhaps the band’s most underappreciated asset.
It’s Django’s voice, in fact, an aching, soulful baritone that lifts the beautiful lilting reggae of the standout “Crop No Drop,” to the level of a reggae classic, every bit as heart-wrenching as Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” or Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers To Cross.”
The consistent knock against ska is that even the best of it ends up repeating itself after a while. The Stubborn All-Stars, just two full-length albums into their career, seem ready to combat that criticism.
