Few careers map as neatly onto the evolution of Jamaican music in the early '80s as Barrington Levy’s. Born in Clarendon in 1964, Levy started recording as a teenager, hooking up with Junjo Lawes for a string of singles—“Shine Eye Gal,” “Wedding Ring,” “Collie Weed,” a mesmerizing take on the rocksteady standby “Skylarking”—that bridged the heaviness of roots with the breezy romance of lovers rock. If anything, it’s this balance that made Levy so successful, so essential, and so unique: He could be sweet but mysterious, unabashedly pop but with a voice whose wispiness—and backing tracks—pointed toward the shadowy worlds of dub. By the time he reached his proto-dancehall phase—both “Here I Come” and “Under Mi Sensi” are epochal, not only two of the best reggae tracks ever, but two of the best tracks in ’80s pop, period—he was about 20. An essential compilation of a crucial career.