Album Review: Rebellion Rises, Ziggy Marley

It’s now thirty-three years since Ziggy Marley’s debut album (with The Melody Makers), which means he’s been a recording artist longer than his late father was. This doesn’t mean, of course, that he’s ever going to be able to step out of his shadow, but if you give any of his records since 1988’s Consciousness Party a chance, you’ll find a lot to like. From ‘Lee And Molly’ featuring none other than Keith Richards, all the way up to ‘I Don’t Wanna Live On Mars’, which finds Ziggy stating, for the record, that he “don’t want to drive space cars”, he’s an artist worthy of attention for more than just his surname.

Rebellion Rises veers from roots reggae, anchored down by the message that leaders and discrimination are bad things and a revolution is on the way, to more personal numbers located somewhere between rocksteady and lover’s rock.

Opener ‘See Dem Fake Leaders’ is firmly in the former camp, lifted above any potentially overbearing proselytising by bracing blasts from the horn section and a burbling organ under the middle eight. ‘The Storm Is Coming’ and ‘World Revolution’ follow in a similar vein, as their titles might suggest, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but Samuill Kalonji rapping on the latter might be better suited to brother Damian’s more urban sounding Jamrock releases.

On the other hand, lighter songs like ‘High On Life’ (“Stress is a tool of oppression”), ‘Change Your World’ (“Wake up music, we have love to make”), and ‘I Will Be Glad’ (“Play the reggae music and we feel irie”) would make even a teenage goth smile.

If the old reggae fan in me might grumble slightly about the odd modern angle in the production, it’s a small price to pay for music fashioned from sunshine.

Rating: 7/10