Eek-A-Mouse: Wa-Do-Dem [GREENSLEEVES]

Why you'll love it

This Greensleeves reissue is pressed in England with artwork close to the 1982 original. Wa-Do-Dem introduced Eek-A-Mouse's one-of-a-kind sing-jay style, and Greensleeves rates it among his finest work.

This edition

• Pressed in England

About the album

Nobody else in dancehall sounds like Eek-A-Mouse. Born Ripton Hylton and known as the "Tallest Mouse in Town," he sings and chats in a slurring, warbling, half-chanted style a sound Greensleeves rightly says has been imitated plenty and never bettered.

Henry "Junjo" Lawes produced, at the height of his run of early dancehall classics, with the Roots Radics laying down heavy, unhurried rhythms at Channel One and the mix done at King Tubby's. The title track rides a loping, irresistible rhythm, "Long Time Ago" and "Slowly But Surely" glide on lovers rock warmth, and "Noah's Ark" sets an old story to a rolling bass line. "Operation Eradication" is the serious heart of the record, written after the death of his close friend Errol Shorter and aimed squarely at the Jamaican police unit he blamed. Through it all, Lawes keeps the mix spacious and the bass right up front.

It still sounds fresh four decades on, and the Roots Radics' rhythms hold up on any sound system you care to name. He's the tallest mouse we've ever stocked, and, we're fairly confident, the tallest anyone has.

Also at Kops: more Eek-A-Mouse on vinyl · browse Reggae & Caribbean

Tracklist

Listen

On Greensleeves (cat# GREL 31), a reissue of the 1982 album.