In the past, with songs like "Tomorrow People," "Ziggy Marley and
the Melody Makers" proved that they could craft good pop songs with a
reggae feel. With their latest Elektra release, they've shown that they
can also craft good reggae songs with a pop feel.

On this album, they have stripped down the instrumentation
considerably, and the effects can be seen immediately on the opening
track, "Keep My Faith," which features nothing but guitar, percussion,
and some nice harmonica work by Taj Mahal. The rest of the family
provides backing vocals on this track, and on this and other tracks on
the album, they sound as tight as they've ever sounded.

On the equally sparse second track, "We Are One," Ziggy's restrained
vocals are accompanied by acoustic guitar, percussion, and a dash of
piano by Don Was (who also co-produced the album.) Cedella Marley,
Sharon Marley and Erica Newell, who provide backup vocals throughout the
album, are all amazingly talented vocalists and their work adds
considerably to the overall effect of the album.

The third track, and first single, "Beautiful Life," is the album's
pop song. With it's catchy chorus, and more fleshed-out sound, it's the
first track on the album that you'll find yourself automatically singing
along to. This track has number one potential if radio stations who have
rotations that consist of more than today's top three alternative
artists get ahold of it.

One of the most impressive things to me about this album is the
line-up of guest/studio musicians that play on it. Taj Mahal, as
mentioned above, plays harmonica on several tracks. Other notables
include Don Was, also mentioned above, Benmont Tench, who plays organ on
a number of tracks, and Jim Keltner on drums.

The band does two Bob Marley covers on this album, "All Day All
Night" and "High Tide or Low Tide." On both tracks, Stephen Marley
provides the vocals and does a very good job on each of them. It is
definitely obvious where he learned to sing, and the band plays both
songs with the appropriate amount of reverence to the originals.

Stephen Marley provides lead vocals on one other track, a song he
penned, "One Good Spliff." This is one track I have a love/hate
relationship with. It sounds like something his father could have
written, but he also adds a rap in the middle. This in itself would be
fine, but it seems out of place with the direction the rest of the album
has taken.

There are also other stand-out tracks in what is overall a great mix
of songs anyway. "Higher Vibration" is another upbeat singalong song. It
features a two-guitar backbone with a chorus that matches the song's
optimistic sound. Then there is the folksy reggae of "All I Need Is
You." This is another track which features the harmonica playing of Taj
Mahal, and the idea of seeing him jamming with this band makes my mouth
water.

All in all, even those that wouldn't label this strictly a reggae
album will enjoy the fact that Ziggy and the band have stripped down
their sound and are going for a more pure reggae feel. The family is
definitely talented enough that they don't have to dress up their music
in a lot of fancy clothes. Fans of reggae and fans of good songwriting
and stirring vocal combinations will definitely find something they like
with this album.