Bob Marley & The Wailers - 'Exodus - 30th Anniversary Edition' (Island) Released 04/06/07

Despite Bob Marley’s unequivocal position in the pantheon of timeless artists, the average person would probably be hard-pressed to name his classic albums; such is the problem when your greatest songs become as ubiquitous as ‘Happy Birthday’, a legacy enshrined not in studios LPs but in greatest hits compilations and grainy film stock of the famous One Love Peace Concert, where the reggae pioneer and Rastafari prophet even managed to get warring parties to come together.

‘Exodus’ then is something of an anomaly, a masterpiece largely buried under the iconic weight of its creator. Chosen by TIME magazine as the greatest album of the 20th century, ‘Exodus’ not only features some of Bob Marley’s most well-known songs (‘Jamming’, ‘One Love’), but is a record that seems to sum up, with the benefit of hindsight, all that made him the figure he is today. This 30th anniversary re-release of the album is disappointingly free of any historical context or bonus tracks, but this appears to be a deliberate move to allow the music to speak for itself (a deluxe version does however exist).

Recorded in London after Bob Marley fled Jamaica following an attempted assassination, every track here sparkles with a warmth, a charge, a genius that is as easy to appreciate today as it no doubt was back in 1977. A lot of this can be placed at the feet of his band, The Wailers. From the lilting rhythms of opener ‘Natural Mystic’ (a political rallying call for people to “face reality now”) to the liquid-sounding funk of ‘So Much Things To Say’, ‘Exodus’ is as effective a Summer album as it is a testament to religion and love. The seven-minute centrepiece title-track meanwhile is notable for its stirring contribution from the I Threes (the female three-piece backing band that included Bob’s wife Rita) as well as a combination of brass, bass and proto-disco stabs of guitar. It’s the track that also lends ‘Exodus’ its oft-ignored subtitle ‘Movement of Jah people’, the album pitched (successfully) as a textbook for an entire race in the process of major changes.

Marley may have come to England to escape death, but just a month after the release of ‘Exodus’ he was diagnosed with cancer of the toe, eventually succumbing to the spread of the disease in 1981. He was just 36. “Let’s get together and feel all right” may be the last line of the album, but it remains the underlying theme of positivity throughout his work: a testament to humanity and, yep, simply brilliant songs.