Search - Gregory Isaacs :: Looking Back

As the title implies, Gregory Isaacs' album, Looking Back, is a retrospective of past performances, but it's not a greatest-hits package. In fact, the peculiar liner notes describe in great detail his biggest singles--none of which is actually on the album. What is on the album is a selection from early in Isaacs' career of hard-to-find tracks, most of them reggae remakes of uncredited North American standards, ranging from jazzman Fats Waller's "Write Myself a Letter" to country diva Skeeter Davis' "End of the World"; from crooner Nat King Cole's "Looking Back" to frat-rocker Mark Lindsay's "Silver Bird." He has such a disarming, fluid tenor that he personalizes even the unlikeliest numbers and turns them into charmers. --Geoffrey Himes