The album cover for JC Lodge's 'Selfish Lover'. - ContributedI have always thought of JC Lodge as the (first nearly naked lady) of Jamaican music and the cover of her Selfish Lover album, re-released by Freesleeves 17 years after it first hit the streets, does nothing to change that.
OK, so by today's standards (or lack thereof depending on how you look at it) looking out coquettishly from behind filmy white material which gives a peekaboo view of an already peekaboo outfit pales to what some high school girls do to their uniforms. But for the times, JC's was pretty strong stuff.
Great hits
So was her music, but the bad news is that the hardest hitting of her songs, Somebody Loves You Honey, is not on this album. Nor is the version of Telephone Love with Shabba Ranks ('done wid de talking JC, ah coming ova deh now!') the hit appears twice, the second in 12-inch format (don't go thinking things now, naughty peeps).
The Gussie Clarke production for Anchor Recording is not a greatest hits compilation but an album that captures what I call the excellent 'Anchor sound', when reggae (in this case specifically lover's rock) first embraced digital beats packed with synthesisers. And it is pleasant enough, easy on the ear, but well above the level of background music.
Tiger adds some grit on Love Me Baby (which also appears a second time in 12-inch format) and the Ranks does turn up on Hardcore Loving ('some woman a plan fe man, man a plan fi dem too, a mussi gum dung deh mek me naa let it go').
Some high notes in Only Conversation (also done over to good effect by Lymie Murray) show her range and the patter in Operator shows the vintage of the song ("I'm sorry, the number you dialled is not in operation at this time. If you need assistance, please dial repair service").
Lonely Nights and Cautious have familiar strength on an album where Mikey Bennett's songwriting talents come through on four of the 13 tracks (it has 16 but three are the 12-inch versions of songs that appeared before), to make Selfish Lover, though not packed with hard-hitting wallop, a good enough listen for those into lover's rock.
Mel Cooke
Track listing
1. Loves Gonna Break Your Heart
2. Conversations
3. Way Up
4. Selfish Lover
5. I Am in Love
6. Telephone Love
7. Sweet Dreams
8. Love Me Baby (feat. Tiger)
9. Cautious
10. Lonely Nights
11. Operator
12. Since You Came Into My Life (featuring Sugar
Minott)
13. Hardcore Loving (featuring Shabba Ranks)
14. Telephone Love (12-inch mix)
15. Selfish Lover
16. Love Me Baby (featuring Tiger, 12 inch mix)