horace andy is a genius

Though he’s probably best known in America for those Massive Attack songs he guested on in the late ’90s, Horace Andy’s back catalog is huge and deep and rich and makes a strong case for Andy as one of the world’s greatest living vocalists, bar aboslutely no one.

The Andy compilation we got in today proves that even when his backing tracks are a bit on the rote side, Andy can still elevate the song using only the sheer power of his voice. He’s got this brilliant affected tremolo that he drops in at the end of lines that is impossible to duplicate: “Give it to me” becomes “Give it to me-yee-yee-yee-yee,” “repatriation soon” is “repatriation so-woo-woo-woo-oon.” He sings like a ghost, aching and swooping across his songs.

His greatest moment, of course, is “Skylarking,” — which is amazingly interpolated on R.A. the Rugged Man’s very not-safe-for-work “Chains.” As the sax skronks and bleats in the background, Andy coos out his sad lament for shiftless youth. “If you keep on doing what you all are doing,” he warns, “you’ll end up in chains.”

Or, more accurately, “cha-yay-yay-yay-ns.”