More than two decades into his successful career -- yes, he has now been recording for more years than his dad
Bob did --
Ziggy Marley should not have to fend off comparisons to his iconic father. But like his also-performing younger brothers
Damian,
Julian, and
Stephen, one supposes he always will, and one has to wonder just what
Bob Marley would have made of an album as disappointing and insignificant as
Love Is My Religion,
Ziggy Marley's second album outside of his group
the Melody Makers. With
the Melody Makers -- comprised largely of other
Marley offspring --
Ziggy proved that he possessed a voice of his own (even if its physical qualities were eerily similar to those of
Bob's). On albums such as 1988's
Conscious Party,
the Melody Makers broke far enough away from the familiar
Marley style to demonstrate that
Ziggy was developing into a formidable songwriter and vocalist, without losing sight of his legacy. Fast-forward nearly two decades, and
Ziggy Marley has not grown much -- if anything, he has seemingly run out of forward-looking ideas. With his familial genre-defining roots -- and more contemporary reggae variations -- still underpinning his songs,
Ziggy is never afraid to step out of bounds. But as he did on his first solo album, 2003's
Dragonfly,
Ziggy again takes the safest routes, watering down the arrangements and the playing until the tracks veer close to lounge-reggae territory. More appalling is that
Marley's lyrics have become sophomoric at best, cliché-ridden faux anthems that one might have expected from him as a teenager but certainly not as a seasoned adult artist. With
Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, in particular, having reached the top of the charts with his monumental, cutting-edge
Welcome to Jamrock album in 2005, it would seem that
Ziggy, once the great hope for the next generation of Marleys, has been surpassed ~ Jeff Tamarkin