Consumer Guide Album

Max Romeo: Open the Iron Gate [United Artists, 1978]
Unlike the lacklustre Reconstruction, these sweet, throbbing prophecies and jeremiads fulfill the promise of Romeo's U.S. debut. Or more likely anticipate it: the rocksteady rhythms suggest that it was cut years ago. Romeo is no innovator, though, and I think I catch a claim that Haile Selassie isn't really dead in one song, which would make it no earlier than 1975. There's a lot else to catch--Romeo remains very hooky for a Jamaican, and praise Jah for that. A−