Boops (Here to Go)

Everything shifts in register here — from roots ceremony to the forward edge of the dancefloor. Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare were the rhythm section that effectively built the infrastructure of international reggae-pop in the 1980s, and this track from 1987 captures them at the intersection of their own Jamaican foundations and the emerging sounds of funk, hip-hop, and electronic pop coming from New York and London. The drums are crisp and programmed with a live player's sense of swing, the bass is melodic and prominent without ever showing off, and the overall texture has a bright, almost celebratory quality that is completely different from the weight of earlier dub productions. The vocal performance leans into the playful and confident rather than the spiritual or political — this is music about movement and pleasure, about being present in a club or on a street corner on a warm night when everything feels possible. It crossed over to international audiences partly because it met pop production values without abandoning what made the rhythm section's work distinctive. There is a lightness here that is not superficiality — it is craft applied toward joy, which is its own serious achievement. This is exactly the kind of record that sounds best through a car stereo on a summer evening, volume high enough that you feel it in your chest, moving through a city that is just beginning to wake up for the night.