A bit of a change from my usual "all reggae sounds the same" spiel. Though there are a few familiar reggae musical devices here; there is also a healthy dose of variety, with everything from scratchy organic reggae through to soul, pop and proto-disco elements finding their way into the mix.
While songs like "One love", "Jamming" and "Three little birds" are definitely reggae, they are also pretty solid pop songs. Bob does a good job of balancing his political messages with some more universal messages.
It's a surprisingly upbeat record considering that Marley had recently relocated to England after a gunman injured him and his wife in their home during a murder attempt.
I used to own all of Marley's Island albums as I kept finding them for $5 at Cash Converters. This is the one I kept - as much as the all reggae sounds the same thing, I think it's also that I like him a lot better when he's writing pop songs than when he's writing message songs. That's why Legend is so good.
ReplyDeleteI'd see them el cheapo at the Warehouse for a while but was reticent about picking them up. I used to be a bit completist about things: I have one or two albums that I really only picked up because I had all of that artist's other albums. Bob has enough of a discography that if I'd really got started on him he'd be cluttering a shelf by now. I was happy to pick up Exodus and listen to the other ones through friends (and later the wonderful and disastrous organism that is the internet).
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