Album: Lee 'Scratch' Perry, The Jamaican 7s (Trojan)

A 44-track compendium of the music Perry released in seven-inch form on a variety of labels between 1974 and 1978, all of it recorded at his Black Ark studio.

Need any further invitation? Well, short of demanding a pitted stack of the original singles, you could hardly ask for more. This is the mystery of Jamaican music taken in one massive, potent joy-shot: reggae as sweet, weird and dread as can be imagined, from the obvious (Murvin's "Police and Thieves" to the deeply obscure. Music about life.