The second of
Jimmy Cliff
's three albums for
Reprise
in the mid-'70s,
Music Maker
has on the surface all of the ingredients that went into
Cliff
's wonderful late-'60s work with producer
Leslie Kong
. The songs are melodic and wise while the production yields a bright
pop
sound with subtle
reggae
rhythms that are implied more than they are front and center, and floating over the top of everything is
's distinctive, expressive tenor. But something intangible is missing, and while it is tempting to suggest that what's absent is
Kong
's input (
died in 1971, shortly after
The Harder They Come
was completed), the truth is that
's songwriting sounds a bit labored here. Not that there isn't strong material on
.
"Foolish Pride"
is a lovely song, for instance, while
"I've Been Dead for 400 Years"
carries the kind of historical and political commitment that made
Bob Marley
an international icon. But nothing on
has the kind of easy universality that earlier
songs like
"Many Rivers to Cross"
or
"The Harder They Come"
exhibited. Another problem with this album, at least in retrospect, is the heavy use of the Moog synthesizer, which gives the whole enterprise a kind of dated feel, while the
-produced material, by contrast, comes across as wonderfully timeless. Still,
is too good a singer and writer to ever put out a completely bad album, and his obvious well-meaning sincerity comes close to making this one work. The best of
's work on
has been collected on
The EMI Years 1973-1975
, and that may be the best way to sample this time period in the singer's career. [The British edition has entirely different artwork and was titled
House of Exile
.] ~ Steve Leggett