Opening an archive can mean looking backwards, but “I Guess You Want It This Way” by C’batch makes the past feel surprisingly active. Twenty-six years after its original conception, the song returns not simply as a completed composition, but as the centre of a six-track project that gives an old idea room to evolve.
The story began when C’batch’s Jamaican-born wife, Yvette, encouraged him to write a reggae song. The early version came close, but something still felt unfinished. What remained was its hook, harmony, and verse melody; musical fragments that somehow stayed with C’batch long after the recording had been put away.
In 2026, he finally returned to them, writing lyrics around the melody he had carried for decades and completing the song. But rather than treating it as a piece frozen in time, C’batch uses the composition as the foundation for six different interpretations. The original melody and reggae character remain recognisable throughout, while each version approaches the material from a slightly different musical perspective.
That makes the EP particularly interesting as part of The Vault, C’batch’s larger project of revisiting compositions and ideas accumulated throughout his musical life. The archive here isn’t functioning as a museum. It becomes a space for re-examination; a place where an old composition can meet the production sensibilities and perspective of the present.
The EP is also dedicated to Jamaican guitar legend Ernest Ranglin, whom C’batch met at Heathrow Airport in 2001. For a guitarist whose project grew out of an attempt to capture an authentic reggae spirit, the dedication adds another meaningful connection to the tradition behind the music.
Twenty-six years later, “I Guess You Want It This Way” by C’batch arrives with its original spirit intact but its possibilities expanded; a strong reminder that returning to the past doesn’t always mean staying there!