It is perhaps too coloured by soul and disco to be considered by purists a reggae masterpiece. Yet Hurts So Good is up there in the Trojan label’s all-time top five LPs. Issued two years after its title track single went Top 10 in the UK, it’s an outstanding ’70s pop album. Her voice is pure caramelised bliss, whether singing rocksteady Elvis (“In The Ghetto”) or reinventing Shirley & Company’s “Shame Shame Shame” as a contagious skank-boogie. Just listen to her devastatingly poignant rendition of Wilson Pickett’s “If You Need Me”?an absolute must.
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