How can you go wrong with a name like Max Romeo and the Upsetters? Well, the album is repetitious (like most reggae) and not always germane, the hooks are too small (doodling pianos and guitars) and the philosophy too simple. However, some excellent pop material emerges along with a lot of filler.

"Norman," the story of a gambler who rides around in a Rambler (a secondhand pimp-mobile?), is introduced by a melancholy horn riff with the drummer loping along like a dragging muffler, while Romeo's voice is high and airy. Lee Perry's production sparkles, dropping out the piano here, mixing the horns there to accent the trombone; overall, the music mirrors the excitement of a desperate night cruise.

"Smile out of Style" harks back to earlier reggae and borrows from Toots and the Maytals' "Pressure Drop," but it seems vaguely repressed and never reaches a similar bounce. Too many of the songs hit a disappointing sameness after encouraging opening riffs, and vocalist Romeo is content to fall into a lazy groove as the music nods around him. Repetition can work as a powerful device when a strong statement is being repeated (as with Burning Spear); otherwise, it's positively deadening. (RS 235)

DAN OPPENHEIMER