Short Reviews ["Osibisa" - 2020 - "Sunshine Day: The Boyhood Sessions" (50th Anniversary Edition)]

When the production team were working on what was going to be the Oscar-winning Richard Linklater film “Boyhood”, they looked for the right music to fit the mood, during which time they came across Osibisa. Included in the movie soundtrack, their most famous song, “Sunshine Day”, is now joined by rare recordings, remixes and live tracks some of which have never been released before and all drawn from Osibisa’s deep well of Afro-Rock recordings. It was strange for me to appoach this album as I haven’t heard Osibisa for more than 20 years, back when I reviewed the early albums when they were reissued in the 90’s. Back then that was also with Red Steel Music, a label I thought had long ago disappeared, so it is great to see it is still going in one form or another. I remember Osibisa from the Seventies when they appeared on Top of the Pops, dressed in bright African colours and looking and sounding like no-one else. To me they epitomised happiness and summer, and listening to this now that all comes flooding back, but I must admit to being somewhat confused as to who this album is aimed at. Of the 11 songs, three of them are different versions of “Sunshine Day”, and the question must be asked, “why?”. Their first 7 albums between 1971 and 1975 all had chart success, so why is there not more songs from those? Just one song, “Abele”, is marked as a new studio number, yet I feel this is an opportunity missed as it does not work as a proper compilation (of which there are already many in existence) to tie in with the film (which came out in 2015 remember), and neither does it really work as a collection of rare material. I found it quite frustrating as I did not want to hear “Summer’s Day” so many times, and I would have been much happier with a live set as “Wowaya” and “Superfly Man” are wonderful in that environment. Osibisa were a groundbreaking group in so many ways, and are probably overlooked by many in the 21st century, but their impact on world music was immense, yet I would probably point to one of the very many compilations already available intead of this one unless you are a dedicated fan.