Musical Youth

Artist: Musical Youth

LP: 7" single

Song: "She's Trouble"

[ listen ]

After the smash success of their 1982 "The Youth of Today" LP, which spawned the immensely hummable reggae hit "Pass the Dutchie," somebody who probably acted like they knew what they were doing decided that Musical Youth needed a "Different Style!" for their 1983 followup record. Unfortunately, the new style they got was the same one already being used by lots of other American performers at the time, like this guy, and the truly "different style" that had made Musical Youth such a refreshing novelty on the pop-radio airwaves of the early 1980s was gone forever. "She's Trouble" isn't a terrible song though—it climbed to #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and the cover features a neat photo of the group balancing precariously on the rails of a roller-coaster. And at least the guys were still allowed to wear great clothes. You can read about Musical Youth on Wikipedia here and find their first two albums compared and contrasted on the Reggae Reviews website here.