George Nooks - Contributed

Artiste: George Nooks

Album: Diamond Series

Whether you are a more mature music aficionado or a youngster with a well developed taste for good old school music, George Nooks' Diamond Series is a CD you will enjoy.

The double CD is loaded with 46 digitally mastered songs from Nooks' past and current catalogues and which were recorded in some of Jamaica's most famous studios including Tuff Gong, Joe Gibbs, Dynamic Sounds, King Jammy's Bobby Digital, Mixing Lab and Anchor.

Rock steady to groovy reggae

Nooks, who has had local hits under two different names - Prince Mohammed and George Nooks - compiles a collection of hits ranging from rock steady to groovy reggae and from lovers' rock to the inspirational.

Some of the most memorable include Tribal War, 40 Leg, (his first major hit three decades ago) Zion Gate, Left with a Broken Heart, Cool Cool Runnings, and of course, his huge contemporary cover, God is Standing By.

There are also some other lovely songs that make the album a delightful listen, among them One Time Daughter done on the music bed of J.C. Lodge's Someone Loves You Honey, and Bubbling Love that features the late, great Dennis Brown.

Those are in addition to a few new songs - Stand By My Woman, I Can't Stop Loving You, Rugged Cross and Rest Your Love on Me - that while having the typical Nooks delivery, really add nothing extra to the collection's appeal.

The album makes for very easy and nostalgic listening, but for a few of those songs that lack the quality of Nook's more popular tunes, it is overall quite a good collection to own.

If there was anything to complain about it would probably be that some of the songs on the compilation could have been left in the studio. This would have made the double CD, a tighter, higher-quality production.

The double CD was produced, manufactured and distributed by Tads Records International Limited.

Leighton Levy