Volume III Just Right (1992)

Three years after their phenomenal debut, Keep On Movin', Jazzie B and the Funki Dreds — his collective of Pan-African artists, dancers, musicians, and DJs — are back with Just Right, pumping their signature down-tempo reggae beats, their Philadelphia soul-inspired strings, horns, and flutes, and their messages of racial unity. After a disappointing but ambitious follow-up, Vol II-1990 — A New Decade, Jazzie has returned to the low-key feel of his first album with little deviation, except that he has turned to male singers, instead of his usual stable of divas, to revive his by-now-stale formula. Oh, sure, Soul II Soul's original singer, Caron Wheeler, returns with the exuberant ''Take Me Higher,'' but the rest of the album fails to soar to new heights. British soul man Rick Clarke sings with genuine emotion on the title track, and Jamaica's Richie Stephens breathes some steam into the dance-hall-style ''Joy.'' But overall, Just Right is barely that. C+

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