My absolute favorite AND the most important reissue of 2003? The Harder They Come soundtrack, deluxe edition, which includes a second disc, the complete Crucial Reggae 1968-72 collection, in addition to the glorious soundtrack. Together they ably cover the most beguiling and artistically important period in reggae history, the very heart of the magical Golden Age.

Perry Henzell's '72 The Harder They Come film is by far the most revered Jamaican feature film ever made, starring the great reggae singer/songwriter Jimmy Cliff - third behind only Bob Marley and Toots Hibbert in the reggae pantheon - as a wiry downtrodden rude boy who turns to crime out of desperation.

But as interesting as the film may be, it is the soundtrack that has given it legendary status. It is simply one of the finest soundtracks ever assembled and is the greatest reggae record not made by Bob Marley.

The center of the collection is composed of Cliff's own standards: the sweet melodic positivity-tempered-with-realism of "You Can Get It if You Really Want," the soaring gospel reverence of "Many Rivers to Cross" (among the most enduring soul - not just reggae - ballads ever), the chugging rasta perfection of "The Harder They Come" title track, with Cliff veering between vulnerability and righteous defiance, and "Sitting Here In Limbo," an insinuating, sophisticated (note deft use of flute and gospel chorus), mid-tempo stunner with perhaps Cliff's most indelible melody.

But as epochal and essential as Cliff's songs are, they are just the beginning of the collection's bounty: if I was forced at gunpoint (perhaps in the hand of Cliff's rude boy character) to select my favorite reggae song ever, it might be one of two songs here NOT by Jimmy Cliff, the Melodians' "Rivers of Babylon," produced by the legendary Leslie Kong, or the Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad," the musical embodiment of the Cliff character.

"Rivers" combines all that is to be loved about reggae: naturalistic, unaffected singing (mostly three-part harmony here); deep internal conviction; childlike (not anything close to childish) moral simplicity in the face of poverty, degradation, violence and despair; melodic purity and rhythmic punch. God, I love that song - it brings me to the verge of tears even after hundreds of listenings: