Marcia Aitken & June Lodge — Reggae Impact / Someone Loves You Honey

Here’s a two-disc CD set bringing together two mellow, buoyant, though often love lost ‘n’ found themed female pop reggae albums from the 1980s. There’s 1981’s Reggae Impact by Marcia Aitken, and 1982’s Someone Loves You Honey by June lodge. Both albums mixing in pop, soul and other genres elements, as well of course all being finished off with the wonderful camp ‘n’ cheesy 1980s production.

The release appears on Doctor Bird- which is the reggae reissue sublabel of Cherry Red. The two-disc come presented in a clear jewel case, which takes in a glossy sixteen-page booklet. Featuring write-ups about each artist and the albums. As well as loads of cheesy promo shots, and vinyl record labels.  Both discs of course feature the full albums, but each is topped off with bonus track too.
 
So on the first disc, we have Reggae Impact by Hannah Town, Kingston, Jamaica-born Marcia Aitken, who had this and one other full length to her name(2014’s conception to Redemption), as well six singles in the 70s. Reggae Impact was originally released in 1981 on Joe Gibbins Music- and featured eight tracks in all. The album opens with the very mellow pop reggae of “Can’t You Love Me” with the steady slow bass line, percussion snap ‘n’ hiss, soulful female backing, and some very smooth horn ‘n’ organ breaks. As we move through the album, we have the tuneful sax melody-led and lightly rising soulful reggae of “Just One Look”.  Or the very romantic upbeat 80’s pop of “(Singing) My Song” with its reggae beat tone but equal a very mellow soul vibe.  On the bonus track side, we have eight bonus tracks- these consist of four non-album tracks, and four twelve-inch mixes- the non-album tracks are on par with the album material, and as 12 mixes go these aren’t too bad either.
 
Moving onto the second disc two and we have June Lodger’s debut album Someone Loves You Honey. London-born Lodger has fifteen albums to her name to date with the last of these being 2021’s Storybook revisited - Telephone Love.  Appearing in 1982 Someone Loves You Honey was released by Ariola/BMG Records, and it’s fair to say this is much more of a formal 80’s reggae pop album, though we do once again get some rewarding additions of other genres into the mix. And once again it features eight tracks.  The album opens with the simmer synth tones of “The Love You Never Had” but fairly soon the bright snapping percussion, tight funky grooving key weaves, and Ms Lodger warmly warbling voice kicks in. As we move through the album we have the blues rock-tinged guitar of “More Than Words Can Say” which wonderfully blends lightly chugging groove, with very mellow pop-rock vibes. We have the light jiving country vibe meets reggae strut of “Push Me Over”, and the cosy synth-licked light disco reggae-pop of “Stay into Night”. On the bonus track side, we get eight tracks- four twelve-inch mixes of album tracks, and four non-album tracks- I’d say I less liked the 12inc mixes here, but the other tracks are great- with many of them pushing further the country reggae cross breed. On the whole, I’d say I enjoy this album more out of the two, due to the smooth genre blending.
 
It certainly is wonderful to see Doctor Bird reissue these two albums from the more mellow, romantic and pop side of 1980s reggae. And I do hope they do a similar reissue down the line, as I enjoyed both albums here- and can see them appeal to not just the normal reggae fan, but fans of wider cheesy 80’s pop.