Marcia Griffiths – Sweet & Nice 2LP

Marcia Griffiths – Sweet & Nice

Be With Records present a reissue of Sweet And Nice, the vital debut album from Jamaica's undisputed first lady of song Marica Griffiths, originally released in 1974. It's reggae at it's most soulful. Slinking through a tight ten tracks of R&B and pop-sourced material, it became an instant best seller. Sweet And Nice has appeared over the years with a revised running order and under different titles. But the original's opening sequence of loping soul is legendary, even beyond reggae circles. These songs are now returned to how they were presented on that first Jamaican release, and under their intended album title. Be With doesn't mess with magic. Marcia's version of "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" has long been lusted after, played by genre-hopping selectors to snapping necks for decades now. It's followed by the sophisticated, rollicking wah-wah funk of "Everything I Own" and the slice of smooth lovers soul par excellence that is "Green Grasshopper" and her ace, lilting Neil Diamond cover "Play Me". The thundering, humid funk of "Children At Play" "sounds uncannily like a precursor of Massive Attack", as FACT Mag astutely noted when they put Sweet And Nice at number 16 in their list of the 100 best albums of the 1970s. Otherworldly, moody, and essential. Side two keeps the fire burning. "Sweet, Bitter Love" should leave you swooning, and is also one of the album's alternate titles. Curtis Mayfield's already-eternal "Gypsy Man" follows, recast as proto-lovers rock. "There's No Me Without You" is elevated to canonical status by the majestic, forlorn horns of the Federal Soul Givers and Marcia's heartbreaking delivery. And if this doesn't get you then surely the next track will: arguably the definitive version of Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". "I Just Don't Want To Be Lonely" re-takes it's rightful place at the end of the LP's second side... but Be With Records added an entire second record of rare material recorded around the same time as Sweet And Nice, much of it unavailable since it was originally released. Amongst these 14 extra tracks you'll find the exquisite late-60s singles "Melody Life" and "Mark My Word" which, along with the sumptuous reading of "Band Of Gold". All material is remastered. 140 gram vinyl.

Tracklist:
LP1:
1. Here I Am Baby (Come and Take Me)
2. Everything I Own
3. Green Grasshopper
4. Play Me
5. Children At Play
6. Sweet Bitter Love
7. Gypsy Man
8. There's No Me Without You
9. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
10. I Just Don't Want To Be Lonely
LP2:
1. Mark My Word
2. The First Cut is the Deepest
3. Melody Life
4. Work and Slave
5. Working To the Top (My Ambition) (Part 1)
6. T Let Me Down
7. Band of Gold
8. Put a Little Love In Your Heart
9. I See You, My Love
10. It's Too Late
11. Baby If You Don't Love Me
12. Love Walked In
13. When Will I See You Again
14. Play Me (Part 2)

Label: Be With Records
Released: 1974/2020