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01. Marcia Griffiths - Here I Am Baby (Come And Take Me)
02. Marcia Griffiths - Everything I Own
03. Marcia Griffiths - Green Grasshopper
04. Marcia Griffiths - Play Me
05. Marcia Griffiths - Children At Play
06. Marcia Griffiths - Sweet Bitter Love
07. Marcia Griffiths - Gypsy Man
08. Marcia Griffiths - There's No Me Without You
09. Marcia Griffiths - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
10. Marcia Griffiths - I Just Don't Want To Be Lonely
11. Marcia Griffiths - Mark My Word
12. Marcia Griffiths - The First Cut Is The Deepest
13. Marcia Griffiths - Melody Life
14. Marcia Griffiths - Work And Slave
15. Marcia Griffiths - Working To The Top (My Ambition) (Part 1)
16. Marcia Griffiths - Don't Let Me Down
17. Marcia Griffiths - Band Of Gold
18. Marcia Griffiths - Put A Little Love In Your Heart
19. Marcia Griffiths - I See You, My Love
20. Marcia Griffiths - It's Too Late
21. Marcia Griffiths - Baby If You Don't Love Me
22. Marcia Griffiths - Love Walked In
23. Marcia Griffiths - When Will I See You Again
24. Marcia Griffiths - Play Me (Part 2)
ARTIST
TITLE
Sweet And Nice
FORMAT
2LP

LABEL
CATALOG #
BEWITH 056LP BEWITH 056LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
8/16/2019

2024 repress. Be With Records present a reissue of Sweet And Nice, the vital debut album from Jamaica's undisputed first lady of song Marica Griffiths, originally released in 1974. It's reggae at its most soulful. Slinking through a tight ten tracks of R&B and pop-sourced material, it became an instant best seller. Sweet And Nice has appeared over the years with a revised running order and under different titles. But the original's opening sequence of loping soul is legendary, even beyond reggae circles. These songs are now returned to how they were presented on that first Jamaican release, and under their intended album title. Be With doesn't mess with magic. Marcia's version of "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" has long been lusted after, played by genre-hopping selectors to snapping necks for decades now. It's followed by the sophisticated, rollicking wah-wah funk of "Everything I Own" and the slice of smooth lovers soul par excellence that is "Green Grasshopper" and her ace, lilting Neil Diamond cover "Play Me". The thundering, humid funk of "Children At Play" "sounds uncannily like a precursor of Massive Attack", as FACT Mag astutely noted when they put Sweet And Nice at number 16 in their list of the 100 best albums of the 1970s. Otherworldly, moody, and essential. Side two keeps the fire burning. "Sweet, Bitter Love" should leave you swooning, and is also one of the album's alternate titles. Curtis Mayfield's already-eternal "Gypsy Man" follows, recast as proto-lovers rock. "There's No Me Without You" is elevated to canonical status by the majestic, forlorn horns of the Federal Soul Givers and Marcia's heartbreaking delivery. And if this doesn't get you then surely the next track will: arguably the definitive version of Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". "I Just Don't Want To Be Lonely" re-takes its rightful place at the end of the LP's second side... but Be With Records added an entire second record of rare material recorded around the same time as Sweet And Nice, much of it unavailable since it was originally released. Amongst these 14 extra tracks you'll find the exquisite late-60s singles "Melody Life" and "Mark My Word" which, along with the sumptuous reading of "Band Of Gold". All material is remastered. 140 gram vinyl.