Released the same year as
Virgin
's
The Best of Shaggy
,
Universal
The Boombastic Collection
contains all the hits missing from its competition including the big one-two punch of
"It Wasn't Me"
and
"Church Heathen."
The earlier singles
"Boombastic"
"Oh Carolina,"
plus the electronically pumped cover of
"In the Summertime,"
have carried over from the
set, meaning that when it comes to massively important
Shaggy
numbers, this one is only missing
"That Girl."
The great sequencing of this compilation almost makes up for it and while this disc is packed at 18 tracks long, this is high caliber dancehall the whole way through and varied enough to keep things interesting. Following the singer from the '80s electro dancehall sound to the R&B-injected reggae of 2008 with all the flavors in between,
is a near perfect representation of
's career and a great argument that he's reggae's most popular crossover artist since
Bob Marley
. ~ David Jeffries