It would be difficult to overstate the importance of producer Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label to the development of reggae music, from its first emergence in the jazzy, galloping form of ska through its adolescent rocksteady period and into its roots-and-culture maturity in the 1970s. There are quite a few good collections of Treasure Isle material out there in the marketplace, but the closest competitor to Treasure Isle: The Ultimate Collection (Metro Music’s two-disc Story of Treasure Isle set) is both slightly shorter and significantly more expensive than this one, and covers largely the same territory: classic tracks from the Paragons (“Tide Is High,” “On the Beach,” “Land of Sea and Sun,” etc.), the Techniques (“I’m in the Mood for Love,” “Queen Majesty,” etc.), Alton Ellis, Laurel Aitken, Phyllis Dillon, and basically all the rest of proto-reggae’s usual suspects. This isn’t a compilation for longstanding aficionados of the genre, who will already own just about everything collected here, but it’s hard to imagine a better introduction for neophytes. Anyone who thinks of “Tide Is High” as a Blondie song or “Carry Go Bring Come” as a Selecter song will probably hear these original versions as a revelation, and even serious reggae fans may encounter less established artists like Margarite and Joya Landis here for the first time. Given the consistently high quality of the content and the very friendly pricing, this is one of the best introductions available to one of the richest and most enjoyable periods in pop music. – Rick Anderson