Bob Marley & The Wailers
Exodus

THE REVIEW

On December 3, 1976, Robert Nesta Marley was grazed in the chest and arm in an assassination attempt. Two days later, he showed his wounds to the audience at the National Hero Park in Kingston, then left for the Bahamas and finally for London's Islands Studio. It's January 1977, Sex Pistols and Clash are composing the soundtrack that intrigues Marley and producer Lee Perry. In November of that year, the single "Punky Reggae Party" will be released, but before, by the summer, the Jamaican musician's anxieties will have flowed into "Exodus," the fifth studio album by the Wailers.

In 1984, "Legend" was released, a posthumous collection of Bob Marley & The Wailers' greatest hits. No fewer than five tracks come from the ten on "Exodus" and are definitively consigned to legend.

"Exodus" is the album of six professionals (including the new guitarist Julian "Junior" Marvin), good musicians and excellent arrangers, capable of crafting a clear and danceable record despite the wounds, particularly psychological, of the leader. But the music begins to become predictable; flashes of genius are present ("Jamming", "Heathen" and especially the title track), yet the maniacal construction of the pieces and the craftsmanship prevail over the spontaneity of the themes, even and mainly when Marley engages with the softer side of his personality ("Turn Your Lights Down Low", "Three Little Birds"). The album closes with "One Love/People Get Ready", a manifesto song; "One Love", in Rasta jargon, is an expression of unity.

The album consecrates Marley as a rockstar and the social and political component, during a bloody period for Jamaica, remains veiled. The balance between the power of sound and sincere militancy would only come with "Survival" (1979), the penultimate studio album by the band; in this sense, at least the eight obsessive minutes of "Exodus," the heart of the eponymous album, had already anticipated much.