Black Magic
You might be tempted to buyBlack Magicbecause it's a big-name affair, bursting at the seams with non-reggae heavy-hittersAnnie Lennox,Sting,Wyclef,Kool & the Gang, andJoe Strummer, but pop giants aside, this is strictly Cliff's album--from the scratch- and funk-ified riddims of "Fantastic Plastic People" to the Jah-infused,Marley-reminiscent "Terror (September 11)." That is not to take away from the collaborators--Wyclef and Kool & the Gang bring the party to the streets with steady rockers "Dance" and the '70s band's fringe-of-memory chestnut  "(Ooh La, La, La) Let's Go Dancin,'" and Strummer's contribution, one of his last, sticks around for its lyrical substance and light-touch genre fusing. Producer Dave Stewart, Lennox'sEurythmicspartner, zigs and zags the album stylistically, but that seems to suit the reggae legend. He's equally at home sending sunny shout-outs home to Jamaica and rejiggering the old get up, stand up sensibility through songs like "War in Jerusalem." Closing track "Good Life" caps the prevailing mood, though: The harder and more varied the music that comes, the better it gets for Cliff. --Tammy La Gorce