A Perfect Length

I’m currently in strong like with Earth, Roots and Water’s imminently pleasant Innocent Youths (Light in the Attic). I don’t think I’d like this reggae album from Toronto’s Summer Records half as much if it were any longer than its 35 minutes. The album from 1977 catches reggae on a sonic cusp, with icy synthesizers in the mix, but nary a syndrum or Steinberger bass is in earshot. The Fender bass is as big and spacious as Montana, and the production’s dubwise, even if the dub passages never add up to much. The sound adds gravity to likable light soul voices. I suspect if this was longer, the lightness – content included (Zion, Rastaman, etc. but no fresh angles on any of it) – would become a problem. At a half-hour, it’s an unassuming advance on summer.