The Jolly Boys are a mento band from Port Antonio, Jamaica, which formed as far back as 1955 and had great commercial success in the late 1980s and 1990s. To describe the band you describe the sound of mento which is a form of reggae and ska. The rebel in reggae if you will.
The Jollyboys are the most famous and commercially successful mento band, and have decided with their rebellious nature to put their mento sound to some of their favourite rock acts and breeding a different vibe from them. Acts such as The Clash, the Stooges, Rolling Stones are all covered in this album and surprisingly you end up singing some of your old favourite classic rock songs in a ridiculously poor laid back Jamaican accent. Or at least I did.
If you like a different take on some covers and want to have fun with them then this is an album for you. The trouble with the album stems in the fact that some of these songs have been covered already on numerous occasions such as Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ and The Stones ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’. I find the album is a bit too safe and I would have preferred a more rebellious approach but maybe like all cover albums this just wants to be what it says on the tin and we should enjoy it for that alone.
