Marcus Garvey

Instant like. Sounds like Finlay Quay. Sign if a good album sometimes is not realising I've finished it

Decent reggae album. Didn’t stick out too much to me, but I enjoyed the listen. Rating: 6/10 Favorite Song: Tradition

I feel like if Bob Marley is “accessible” reggae that the masses can enjoy then Burning Spear is what real reggae fans would listen to.

I was not familiar with Burning Spear, but I enjoyed this listen, it was so soothing and smooth.

Even 30 minutes was too long for me. Before Red, Green, and Gold, this was trending towards a 1 star. But the guitar was enough to break up the monotony of the album and salvage a 2

I enjoyed the first few songs. But by the end, it was just more of the same and lost that spark that made it interesting. 2.5 stars rounded up.

This was absolutely excellent. This might even be the best reggae I’ve ever heard, a new gold standard. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this album, it just feels right. I love the production on this too, it plays around a lot with hard panning. It makes everything sound really spacious and it works well on this album, but not every album so it’s hard to get right. The clarity on the guitar is excellent and it’s still really smooth, it’s not a harsh sound that hurts your ears which you get quite a lot with guitar. The bass is nice and deep and sounds great with a sub, not to mention the basslines are really groovy. I nearly wish this album was longer so I could enjoy it for longer but I’ll still happily take 34 minutes. This was a treat given the previous run of albums has been pretty poor, I will be coming back to this time and time again I can already tell. I think the best song is Old Marcus Garvey but I could find a reason for almost all the songs to be my favourite.

Als ik afga op de legendarische status van deze plaat, vind ik 'm toch iets te gewoon en te mager

Was good to learn about Marcus Garvey and the history of Rastafarianism. A potent and enjoyable album.

This album's incredibly well written reggae songs, and deeply rhythmic edge couple beautifully with ultra-conscious lyrics in a super compelling way. I want to revisit this one before I speak on it with any real finality, because I think this could become one of my favorite reggae albums. I'd say this has more of a chill sound than many of my favorite reggae albums, but it makes the lyrics even more potent in comparison. This album is angry, but in such a quiet way that Marcus Garvey has a super cool sound. This one was pretty sick.

Finally, some reggae beyond Bob Marley — and a record that makes me curious to hear more. The bass has real weight, the horns sound wonderfully mournful, and the rough lead vocals give the songs an urgency I really like. The exchanges with the backing singers are especially good: I find myself waiting for those answering voices to come back in. I’ve found the repetition tiring on other reggae albums, but here it keeps drawing me further into the songs. A repeated phrase gains force instead of simply filling another few bars, and there’s enough feeling in the performances to keep me listening closely. Apparently, the familiar rhythm wasn’t the whole problem. On this record, I’m quite happy for it to keep going.

Had never heard of burnish spear, and was worried this was going to be problematic. BUT It is not, which is ideal because I really enjoyed this album, it's a brilliant reggae album

Oh man, it’s a banger.

Marcus Garvey 3.6 Slavery Days 3.5 The Invasion 3.5 Live Good 3.4 Give Me 3.4 Old Marcus Garvey 3.6 Tradition 3.7 Jordon River 3.5 Red, Gold & Green 3.4 Resting Place 3.4 Score: 3.5

Budget Bob Marley??

Reggae music, just not my thing

Es, literalmente, reagge. Todo lo que te esperarias. Se me ha hecho quizá un poco repetitivo.

Marcus Garvey var en fascinerende fyr. En sånn type man hadde laget en storfilm om hadde han bare vært hvit. Det hadde nok vært litt rart å bruke hele denne plata som soundtracket, men at to-tre låter burde fått profilert plassering i filmen er udiskutabelt. Enten er denne nokså fronttung, eller så går jeg litt lei på side B. Litt synd, for den starter så uhyre sterkt, med Burning Spear, for anledningen kledt i sin favoritthatt historikerhatten, i storform. Hadde de siste tre holdt samme kvalitet som de tre første hadde dette kanskje vært den beste reaggaeplata noen sinne, men det er de ikke. Så da blir den samlede karakteren deretter. 7/10

For en deilig bassing levert av 41-barnsfaren Aston «Family Man» Barrett! Kan ikke gå så galt med noe sånt i bunn. Så hadde det vært en morsom tanke hvordan det ville stilt seg om et norsk black metal-band hadde laget en hel plate med hylling av en gammel nasjonalist. Det hadde vel ikke sett spesielt pent ut. Men her funker det, det gjør jo det. Jeg så forresten Burning Spear på Roskilde i 2001. Det var veldig bra, og jeg forsøkte etterpå å skaffe meg bandet på plate, men det var lite hjelp å få både i den lokale platebutikken og på datidens nedlastingstjenester. Etter hvert kokte det bort i kålen. Så her gjorde faktisk 1001-prosjektet at jeg endelig fikk sjekket ut en plate jeg har hatt på blokka i over 25 år. Halleluja.

Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey Han høyres ikkje noko ut som Jimmy Cliff, han her. Vokalen er meir forkynnande, på eit vis. Koringa som følgjer hakk i hel store deler av denne plata mjukar opp uttrykket fint. Det er noko oppløftande med desse tonana, sjøl om det ligg eit godt slør med moll over det meste. Rytmeseksjonen er hypnotiserande og kan få meg til å gløyme tid og stad litt. Samstundes kan den bidra til at låtane glir litt i kvarandre og brått blir eg usikker på om eg framleis er på same runde som i stad eller plata spelar på ny. Einig i Bubastis i at dei mest minneverdige songane kjem tidleg, men dette er jo fint heile vegen. Likevel syns eg ofte slike sløye, bakoverlente rasta-rytmar kan bli litt einsidige over tid. 7/10

Sounds like bob marley but not as great as bob Wadada wo-oh-oh wadada!

Bout time I got a real reggae album. I’m not super versed on the genre, but I did recognize some tracks. One of these days I’ll give it and dancehall a proper deep dive.

I liked it for the political lyrics, but it has the same issue I always have with reggae: it's kinda repetitive, even for such a short record. Maybe in a different mood or situation, I would've given it a higher score.

Yeah I don't think I like reggae. This is a 2

So Repetitive. Songs like "Old Marcus Garvey" felt twice as long as they actually were. Though some songs did feel pretty ok with their instrumental choices.

Love reggae.

REally nice and calming chill music

Perfectly fine listen.

Less accessible than Marley, easier on the ears than Peter Tosh.

I liked it, but also probably like Reggae better than most

Just couldn’t get in to this one. Seemed way more repetitive and dull than the other reggae on this list.

This is a very socially conscious reggae album. Reggae is a genre of music that I have very little experience listening to, so it is nice that there are several good examples on this list to broaden my horizons, but I also struggle to critically review the albums and recognize the nuances in the music. This album made me feel like I was standing in a head shop for 30 minutes. Almost all of the songs had the same general beat and structure, but they were fun to listen to at least. This wasn’t as engaging as Exodus, but I still liked it. 3/5

Solid album, easy listen through.

It was fine, just not entirely my cup of tea.

Reggae, 1975 -> 2-3

I don’t have the genre familiarity to discern what is meaningful or different about this. It sounded how I would expect a generic reggae album to sound, I thought the concept of the album might lend it more energy but I didn’t get that from it. I did like when the horns sounded jazzy though.

Well that's more like it

Chilll

3 5. Not sure why I enjoyed it so much

good political commentary

I was expecting so.e run of the mill reggae, but man, this first track knocked me of my feet. One of the best reggae songs I've heard. Second track is marvelous aswell. It all sounds so rich yet African. Track 3 is more repetitive but nice. Live good is so stony and dreamy with the flute and lazy vocals. Give me is again more repetitive, but I do enjoy the flute in a reggae contest. Tradition is a magnificent track that makes me want to go back to travel in an Ethiopian bus. The finishing tracks continue the same path. What a joy of a listen. Truly- among the reggae albums I've heard, this one is one of the very best. It's reggae, so the variation is not the key, but the quality of the songwriting and the atmosphere of the preformenses is great I'll give this a flat 4. It's really good

This is #day776 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and... it's been a while since I got some reggae. I don't really mind. Sunshine vibes all around, except it's September outside. This is a 3 out of 5. Looking forward to #day777.

Ok not really my genre but sure someone else’s, thx!

Reggae man not my genre

reggae de fondo

Classic Reggae, exactly what I like it to be. Pounding Drums and Bass with some relaxed but apt social commentary. It's still not my favorite genre, but within said genre this is probably the type of Reggae album I like the most. Burning Spear is also just a really cool artist name.

This is a reggae album with socially conscious lyrics. I do mostly like the reggae beats, but they can get repetitive. This was by no means bad, though.

Reggae is always a good time. 4.5 bumped down to 4.

I’m just at a 3. I dunno, at some point after “Give Me”, this album just lost my attention. I don’t think it really made much of an effort to retain it, at least for my tastes. Reggae has, at times, eluded me. I think it can be especially good when there’s a bit more progression in the instrumentals & a bit more bite in the lyrics. I usually don’t have to talk about the vocals since every reggae artist generally follows a typified style. I think this album had that bite for 4 of its first 5 tracks, and then just lost it entirely for the final 5. The instrumentals just didn’t really do much for me either, even if they’re technically sound & objectively nice to listen to. It’s an album that just sort of settles at a lower bar than I was expecting, and that’s fine. It just didn’t really feel that compelling, nor did it give me much of a reason to stay invested. Ultimately, I just don’t know enough about Marcus Garvey himself (seems a bit controversial) or Jamaican culture to truly get a sense of this album’s loose crusade towards ‘restoring the African diaspora’ (or something like that). It seems like a tenant of Rastafarianism though. There’s something to that concept that could make for a compelling album, but I just don’t think Burning Spear finds it, at least in a way that’s interesting to me. It’s really not a bad album. I understand a 4 or a 5 if it meshes better for anyone else. It just didn’t do it for me. Hence, a 3.

Sweet reggae. Chill listen.

Not bad but bored me

Classic

Nice to get a 70s Jamaican reggae selection that's not in some way connected to Bob Marley or any of the Wailers, although I'll admit that I'm not familiar enough with either Jamaican politics/history or reggae's history to really appreciate this album as well as I might. I *was* intrigued, though, by the Wikipedia entry noting how Island Records was afraid the original Fox Records release was too raw and political and wanted to make it more mainstream/white-appropriate, and even tried a bit to find the original Jamaican Fox/Wolf imprint, but was eventually convinced by a Reddit thread that while the changes definitely outraged Winston Rodney (Burning Spear), the actual differences between the different pressings aren't all that obvious. Either way, highlights for me were the title track, "Slavery days" and the still-fraught-in-2026 "Jordan river". (And for the record, you *can* listen to the title track and "Slavery days" in their original form on the compilation album "Jack Ruby Presents The Black Foundation", and while they *are* similar to the Island/Mango versions, I can see why Rodney was upset.)

Solid though didn't grab my attention the way some reggae albums have (thinking of Black Uhuru especially).

This is what I had hoped Marley would be, with both catchy style and political charge. It's ultimately a groove and gets lost after a bit, but at 33 minutes it breezes past with hook-worthy reggae that packs a punch. Probably worth a few more listens.

Groovy! I loved it

I literally just had a Reggae album yesterday. Once again, I wish I was more of a fan of Reggae, but this just really is not the genre for me. I think this album has a good vibe to it. I think that it has a lot to say and it generally speaking is quite varied with its melodies. I don't really know why Reggae doesn't click for me. I think it's somewhat to do with the lack of variety in maybe the tempo?? I'm honestly not sure, I wish I did really vibe with it more cause i has a good vibe to it. I could definitely listen to this in the background or whilst doing something else. But on its own, I just could not see myself listening to this. Fav Track: The Invasion

Trying to remain open to the possibility of a reggae album that I find truly compelling rather than just mildly enjoyable. Might be a cultural disconnect. "Tradition" was a standout.

funky but good…?

The first half of this was better than the second half. My thing about a lot of reggae is that the songs on a single album tend to have very little variability.

I am no authority on reggae but I will say that I enjoyed it more than Bob Marley!

Tja ik vind toch echt alle reggae op elkaar lijken sorry. Maar ik heb me prima vermaakt

Good, but not great. A 3.

Nice even though I'm not.a big fan of reggae.

Cracking Album

Yep still not into reggae. At least this album was super short.

I dug this one more than most reggae

Reggae é sempre muito monótono e desinteressante. Este, pelo menos é tradicional, sem firulas eletrônicas e apelo pop.

There's a lot of good music here, with the characteristic two-chord beats of reggae supported by some excellent backing music. Burning Spear's vocals are typical for reggae but well above replacement level. You could be fooled by the softly swaying beats into thinking that this is just for easy listening, but the intensely political overtones will disabuse you of that notion quickly. This album opened my eyes to reggae as a medium for political expression and I found its environmental overtures to be fascinating as well. I enjoyed the challenge this album presents.

love the intention and the commentary. I also think the music carried that message nicely. just not a massive fan. Though another listen down the line might give me the time to reconsider

me gustó bastante este disco, en general soy de un reggae más movido pero este tiene muy buenos instrumentos, aunque los temas son bastante repetitivos me gustó bastante. no destaco ningún tema en especial pero el álbum completo me gustó y lo escucharía alguna vez más de fondo

Still not sure which was the album name

Reggae.

More political that musical to my view

Enjoyable but didn’t particularly grab me.

Fine, I liked burning spear

This is not a good album, and whilst I felt racist forming this opinion during repeated chants of "Do You Remember the Days of Slavery?" in my ears, continued listening showed it's still wasn't a good album. Intended as protest through reggae, this doesn't stop it from being not a good listen. Fun soundscape, good musicians, but no thanks.

Did find myself questioning why I couldn't get into it as much as the Bob Marley albums we'd had recently. Might have been a bit reggae-d out.

No soul but technically okay

Wow! Ashamed to say I'd never heard of this artist! The album led me to read up Marcus Harvey, an impressive figure and a huge advocate for the pan-African Movement. Very powerful lyrics, raw reggae and an absolute vibe. It passed the 'would listen to again' test and bonus star for teaching me something about black history

If i could stand reggae, this would be great.

Fine but not for me

FIRST REGGAE ALBUM?? genuinely amazing. Loved the chill vibes and helped me get through my study sesh with the great vibes it brought. Idk for some reason listening to this one was just so simple and made me happy. Love this reggae stuff, even though already heard some of it ofc...

Solid reggae album but nothing on here really blew me away. If I was in the mood for reggae this would be a good choice. "Marcus Garvey" "Slavery Days" and "Jordan River" were the standouts for me

This is fine, but I'm really not a big reggae guy, so after a couple of songs it really all just sounds the same. I'm sorry.

Though some heavy topics, the album was full of cool vibes, perfect for a morning walk in the sun.

Felt like I was on a cruise in the 90's

Good to fall asleep to 6/10

This was kind of just fine for me. Nothing bad about it, but it kind of failed to grab me the way other reggae on the list has thus far. Maybe if I was more familiar with the history of Marcus Garvey I might appreciate it more. As it stands it’s a 2/5 for me.

Mid

Vaca catch up

Groves beautifully. Stands tall with it message. Next up, Garvey's Ghost. And I'm expecting big things. If I could hear the original mix of this album is expect the extra edge would make it a 5.

I think this was a lot more enjoyable because I’m so tired of mediocre rock. 3.5/5

Pretty solid reggae album.

hell yes to marcus garvey.

This was a great surprise - I like this

Great, but short. I played it through two times and was surprised by how quickly it was over each time.

I love how so much Reggae music is protest songs, yet still has such a laid back chill vibe. That is what comes through so well on this album. It has powerful lyrics, and all the things to love about music... great percussion, winds, guitar & keys. Tradition is probably my favorite track along with the title song.

I thought this was quite an enjoyable and thought-provoking reggae release. I didn’t love every song here but I felt the sound and commentary were so nicely paired. 1 listen Favorite Tracks: Title Track, Tradition

A solid reggae album that I'd listen to again.