Natty Dread
| Bob Marley
Natty Dread
Natty Dread is the seventh studio album by Bob Marley and the Wailers, released in 1974. It was the first album released as Bob Marley and the Wailers instead of just the Wailers, the first recorded without Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, and the first recorded with I Threes, a female vocal trio consisting of Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt, and Marley's wife, Rita Marley. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
(2000) Natty Dread wrangled the seemingly unreconcilable impulses of reggae — its economy of line and expansiveness of spirit — into an intense evocation of a people’s boundless capacities for faith, anger and love.
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Sputnik Music
"Natty Dread" stands as one of, if not the, most cohesive and most entertaining record of the Wailers' post-74 phase. Hardly anything here is perfect or even really close to it, yet Marley doesn't disappoint once throughout those nine tracks. Even the filler material, easily distinguished as such, manages to entertain and showcase not only the talent of him and his bandmates, but also their ability to create a smooth and relaxing atmosphere. Maybe that's the crux of matter, the fact that not even the weightiest message distracts the laid-back nature of this LP. Thus it outshines the overtly political "Survival", the unconstrained sound of "Kaya" and even his biggest success, "Exodus". So even without his companions Tosh and Wailer he has the ability to create brilliant reggae, maybe more precise than ever.
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All Music
In addition to the lyrical strengths, the music itself is full of emotion and playfulness, with the players locked into a solid groove on each number. Considering that popular rock music was entering the somnambulant disco era as Natty Dread was released, the lyrical and musical potency is especially striking.
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Entertainment Weekly
Marley’s Natty Dread, which replaces the taut reggae of the Wailers with small-band hipster swing. Its bebop saxes and drums do the best job of fulfilling the concept of the series — so much so that ironically, it may send mystified fortysomethings running back to Marley’s original album.
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Reggae Lovers
This album contains arguably his greatest piece, No Woman No Cry, and other superb songs such as Lively Up yourself, So Jah S’eh, Natty Dread and Revolution.
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Greil Marcus
Natty Dread is a good beat with a heavy dose of mystery—likely the best album a Jamaican band has ever made, the culmination of many years of Jamaican musical revolt. One message of this music is that Jamaica’s vitality is based not in the final triumph of that revolt, but in its permanence—it is less a goal than a principle of life. That might be why one can imagine that this album has its roots in Robert Johnson’s music, even as it walks the streets of Kingston, keeping company with an African ghost.
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Nicky Dread
(2003) While Catch A Fire struck a match for reggae, Natty Dread was the album that was responsible for the roots revolution of the mid and late 1970s.
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