MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: BOB MARLEY - KAYA 40th ANNIVERSARY

Well, what to do with the Bob Marley catalogue? All his major albums have been reissued not once, not twice, but now three times in the dying CD era, but there's still demand for new editions, especially when those magic anniversary dates show up. For Kaya, his biggest chart success of his regular albums (excluding the mega-selling Legend collection, of course), it's the big 4-0, and labels are loathe to pass that by. But it's already had a bonus track added one time, and a whole live album including last time. And it's not like there were a lot of out-takes, since the friggin' album was made up of leftovers in the first place, as Marley had recorded way too much for the previous album, Exodus, and scrapped this together a few months later.

That leaves the riskiest option, the remix. Risky, because unless you really mess around with the tracks, people will just say, 'Why bother?' And when you do start deconstructing and dramatically changing things, you open the results to criticism from purists. The Marley family however hasn't shied away from such projects, allowing outsiders to come in for attempts, and letting the kids have their way with the original masters as well. In this case, it's son Stephen doing the project.

For those without the original album, it's included on disc one, with Stephen's remixes on the second. As for the original, it has a spotty reputation. Coming off the wildly successful Exodus, which solidified Marley as the crusading Third World superstar, Kaya sold great, but let down lots for its lack of political and social material. That had all gone on Exodus, and Kaya was meant to show the more easy-going side of Bob. These were love and relationship songs, plus a couple about ganja. including the title cut. It's best known for the charming Is This Love, certainly a grand track, but there's really nothing else that reaches that lofty grade. Two of the cuts are remakes of his early, pre-star Jamaican hits, Sun Is Shining, and Satisfy My Soul, and don't better the originals. However, these are all done with his great later band, and the easy feel of the album is enjoyable, if not exactly inspiring or a call to revolution.

The remixes are pretty major, with the younger Marley going back to the session tapes, and finding old demo vocals, then matching those with different takes than the final versions, often at different tempos. So rather than the usual studio effects and buried parts brought up, what we have are essentially all-new versions. So, better? Hmm, different, most of them. He leaves This Is Love pretty much alone, but a track like Crisis gets a different feel altogether. My main problem is that on a few tracks, the lead vocal from Bob now sounds odd; for some reason he was singing strangely, and the best I can do to describe it is to say it sounds a little like Adam Sandler singing Marley. That's disconcerting, right? That's how I felt. While Stephen has brightened the sound, I miss the old-school echo and more spacious mix of the originals.

The overall idea of the remix album doesn't offend me. Experiment away, next generations, as long as the original is nearby for reference and to avoid rewriting history. But in the end, I don't think this attempt adds much to our appreciation, and I'd advise finding the version with the live album instead. This set is also available as a two-album collection on vinyl.