Ziggy Marley Is Looking on the ‘Brightside’ for His First Proper Solo Album in Eight Years: ‘I Listen to This Album As If I Didn’t Make It’

In the time since Ziggy Marley’s last proper solo studio album, the nine-time Grammy-winning reggae star survived the COVID-19 pandemic, produced his late father’s box office-smashing biopic and dropped a star-studded duets album featuring the likes of Tom Morello, Busta Rhymes and Sheryl Crow. Naturally, it was time for a reset.

To do so, Marley headed out to Los Angeles to build Rebel Lion Studio, the perfect new playground for him to freely and fully experiment with recording in 432 Hz, the sonic frequency that grounds his quietly defiant Brightside LP.

Comprised of just eight songs, Marley’s new album certainly doesn’t overstay its welcome. Instead, the breezy record blends deep personal revelations with a world music-infused roots reggae foundation, resulting in a morale-boosting listen that fashions universal proclamations of hope out of grounding Rastafari principles. Grammy-winning instrumentalists Sheila E. and Trombone Shorty appear on standout track “Why Let the World,” while pop-soul vocalist Nikki Costa and ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro guest elsewhere on the tracklist.

“Mike Schuppan, who engineered the record, put the studio together right before we came into record Brightside,” Marley tells Billboard. “It’s like building your house and then living in it.”