The Harder They Come

iTunes Review

For better or worse, the larger than life images from Perry Hanzel’s Kingston bound outlaw flick “The Harder They Come”, and the loping grooves of the Jimmy Cliff curated soundtrack of the same name, would come to wholly define reggae in the minds of many American listeners. But the near monolithic cultural status of the soundtrack is, if unrepresentative of Reggae’s vast stylistic diversity, at the very least an undeniable testament to the power of these twelve tracks, which run the gamut from the soul inflected lilt of the Maytals immortal “Pressure Drop”, to the seminal sufferer’s anthem that is the Melodian’s “River’s of Babylon” to the hard-edged beauty of Jimmy Cliff’s hypnotic “The Harder They Come. Like few other reggae compilations, The Harder They Come is possessed of a palpable sense of Kingston’s squalid avenues and relentless heat, of the transcendent joy of its streetside parties and the ever present danger of violence. Do not hold its commercial success against it, The Harder They Come is a pitch perfect document of an important moment in reggae’s history.