Album cover of the CD, Blues Buster Memorial 2008.

Musically, the Blues Buster Memorial 2008 album is a sure shot. Subtitled Behold: Thanks For the Memories, the huge hits from the 1950s to the '70s are all there. These include the title track and Wide Awake in a Dream, exquisite slow jams vocally on uptempo music tailor-made for stylish dancing.

Then there is, Soon You'll Be Gone, a tale of love about to be lost, one of several snappy ska numbers on the 12-song set. Additional ones are You Got Me Runnin and I Won't Let You Go, with How Sweet It Is and You're No Good For Me somewhere in between.

Oh Baby veers between uptempo (where the piano really swings), and that slow swing that makes you take your partner for a swing around the floor.

Slow in vocals as well as music is Don't Take Your Love Away, the horns and strings making for a great combination.

Lyrically, the album is exclusively about matters of the heart.

The Blues Busters, Phillip James and Lloyd Campbell, is undeniably an exquisite harmony duo. The Testimonies to The Late Blues Busters (also from some 'late' people) on the back of the CD speak volumes. Sam Cooke says, "Philip and Lloyd have all the talent to succeed. Working with them has been a great pleasure," while Otis Redding says, "The first time I saw Philip and Lloyd perform, I invited them to open for me on my world tour. That's how impressed I was."

Bob Marley gushes, "The Busters were always my favourite Jamaican group. That had a tremendous influence on me," while the (present) Jimmy Cliff simply says, 'The Busters can sing. They can really sing."

But all these great songs and musical history are wrapped in an awful packaging by Sanctified Records International. There is absolutely no creative imagination applied to the cover artwork and it is totally unforgivable that the group's name is misspelt in the title (it reads 'Blues Buster').

In addition, there is no track listing anywhere on the insert and the bad grammar continues on the CD itself ("produced, arrange, and ... "). The design there is also awfully uninspired.

Even the name of the man, whose picture is largest on the inside of the insert and to whom the birth of the Blues Buster memorial album is credited, seems to have been misspelt. On the CD it is Jack Plumber; on the press release accompanying the disc it is Jack Plummer.

So, the music for some late people is timeless, but the packaging is a late non-starter.