Suited and Booted: Essential Mod & Ska

---

---

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2007-11-13 rating:
More interesting for what it leaves out...
I have to don my "hmmmmm" face for this review I'm afraid.

So, I suppose it's possible to have a "Mod Music" album without the Who or the Small Faces or The Faces, after all this is one such! But when you also leave out the Lambrettas, The Jam, Rod Stewart and Manfred Mann as well, you do start to wonder. The whole thing plays somewhat like a Madness/UB40/The Beat benefit in fact.

The inclusion of sixties rarities like "Rudi's in Love" by the Locomotive and "Seven Days Too Long" by Chuck Wood (incorrectly credited in the plural "Woods" on this one!) - a straight reggae pop song and a 70s Northern Soul classic respectively - just reinforce the idea that this collection was more about what the compiler could get, rather than any real desire to attain a true solid set of mod fayre. Was that extremely minor-league Chairmen of the Board track a mod classic? Not when I was a Mod it wasn't!

We also get two Paul Weller "bonus" tracks that are actually "live" versions of the songs (though of course nothing on the packaging tells you this) - but Paul's a mod icon right? And we couldn't get Rod Stewart tracks, So here they are.

Many of these have been digitised from records, and in fact during Alton Ellis' song "Rock Steady" there's actually a groove jump - okay it's probably an old record - but some note of this fact might have provided reassurance that my CD player was not malfunctioning in some sympathetically retro fashion..

In summary then, some real gems here (Dean Parrish's "I'm On My Way" for example is a belter and another Northern Soul Wigan all-niter staple), but there are far too many doubtful inclusions given the premise of the package: We get a Kinks tracks but nothing by the Small Faces who were equal or greater "Mod" Icon. A great many landmark Mod hits left out which should have been here and I came away feeling that this is a rather cynical product I'm afraid.

Oh, and the Toots and the Maytals track "54-46 Was My Number" is not the same recording as the one which scraped the underside of the UK charts in 1972 it's an older and scratchier recording in a fairly different arrangement.

So, yeah, Hmmmmmmmmmm

---

review by: walkert24 date: 2006-06-06 rating:
great album
i'm only a teenager but really into mod & ska and this album is great got everything you want from the 60s, 70s and 80s. just a great album for anyone who likes mod & ska



review by: date: 2005-06-21 rating:
a fantastic retro album
Suited and booted is a great double album with a mix of classic ska and mod tracks. From the opening One Step Beyond thru great tracks by the Selector, Dexys,Fun boy 3, there is definitely more thrilla than filla. There are a few omissions from the mod era that stops this from being the definitive album of the era. But if you're new to Ska or a child of the 80's this a great album for the car.

---

Similar products

All Things Mod
20 Original Mod Classics
This Is the Modern World
Too Much Two Tone: Ska Classics
Best of Ska

---

Similar categories

Music . Styles . Pop . Bestsellers
Music . Styles . Hip-Hop & Rap . Bestsellers
Music . Styles . Hip-Hop & Rap . Gangsta & Hardcore
Music . Styles . Reggae . Ska . General
Music . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . CD . CD Album
Music . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . Compilation

---