Released two years after the elaborate, vibrant, and excellent album
Fly Rasta,
Ziggy Marley returned with an eponymous release, the self-titling perhaps a reference to the bedroom demo and laptop-studio feel of the album. There are still acoustic moments ("Heaven Can't Take It" is the beautifully written but sad idea that humans are dragging the heavens down) and band-oriented songs that punch out of the speakers ("Amen" being a stomping example), but the opening joy dubbed "Start It Up" is the new commercial ragga, all post-
Major Lazer, post-
Stephen Marley with the necessary funk and quirk. "Weekend's Long" is filled with true heart and soul, and it's the closest this
Marley has come to cutting a
Michael Franti-like song that could be shopped to vacation companies and cruise lines for their next television commercial, but charm is at the center of this smaller, more compressed album, and it's a good thing.
Ziggy Marley, the LP, shares much in common with
Robert Palmer's
Pride,
Black Uhuru's
Chill Out, and even
Gregory Isaacs'
Night Nurse, as its diminutive, deft, funky, tight, electro-tinged, and sincere. With all these ingredients at just the volume, it's still one single or classic short of being the best-of
Ziggy, but the cool temperament and empowering mood of the album offer a life-affirming soul massage through music. For those reasons, this is likely to be some of the artist's fans favorite release. ~ David Jeffries