Kaya is, I think, the most international pop album I've ever heard. To Jamaicans, it sounds harder and more roots than anything Marley's done since breaking up with the (real) Wailers, and for Americans, it has a brighter, clearer feel, with more up-tempo hooks and legible lyrics. It avoids the thinness of Rastaman Vibration and the opacity of Exodus….

Exodus was a blurred skein of Rasta maxims underscored by deep personal melancholy, a musical echo of the rootless wanderings that followed his self-exile from Jamaica. Exodus spoke of the personal through the universal; Kaya speaks of the universal through the personal. It is easier for Americans to empathize with….

Romantic love has replaced Armagideon as central motif and metaphor, and there is scarcely a mention of Rasta. The love songs "have meaning to me deeper than that," Marley said, "but me invite the people …"

… to "Easy Skanking" with...