Having narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Jamaica, Marley came to the UK to record this album, which contains a big chunk of his hits. It’s a mix of political and romantic, more or less evenly split with Side One being the one about politics and the political side of Rastafarianism, and Side Two being the songs about love and faith (in general).
Marley adds other musical genres to the reggae. The title track Exodus (about the “movement of Jah people”) is a lengthy piece with quite funky overtones while Waiting In Vain and Turn Your Lights Down Low are a lot more like soul. The messaging is as strong as ever. Guiltiness states that “Woe to the down-pressers, they'll eat the bread of sad tomorrow” like a psalm prophesying the downfall of tyrants and while One Love may seem like a happy optimistic song, it also declares Biblically that “There is one question I'd really like to ask. Is there a place for the hopeless sinner who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?”.
On top of all of that, we get Three Little Birds, driven by Tyrone Downie’s simple organ riff and the backing singers (including Marley’s wife Rita) who Marley referred to as the Three Little Birds. Now, I usually find this song irritating because it gets so much airplay and it’s a little bit twee, but I enjoyed it here; perhaps it works better in the context of the album as a whole. I described Side One of Queen’s A Night At The Opera as being a good succession of songs for lifting the mood, and this whole album is a little like that. Laced through with simple faith in “Jah” and in humanity, it starts off addressing injustices and troubles, but rises through to hope and optimism.
Comments
Post a Comment