Ziggy Marley - Brightside (Tuff Gong/V2 Records)

Maybe it's not that surprising then that 'Jah We Give Glory', the opener of his new album 'Brightside' - recorded at his brand-new Rebel Lion Studio in Los Angeles - also comes across a little like a cheerful children's song.

That being said, we far preferred 'Racism Is A Killa', in which Ziggy presents racism as a contagious and above all deadly disease, yet one against which humanity and equality can serve as a form of protection.

As for the album title, Ziggy noted: "The brightside is my world. We are confident in the victory of good over evil! We're not guessing. We understand that. So, no matter what you see going on, we have no doubts. We have to give life a chance. There's always a reason for life to go on."

That same message is also beautifully captured in 'Why Let The World' (for which Ziggy also brought Trombone Shorty and Sheila E into the studio): "You see what's happening in the world, what's happening to people, and it really brings me down sometimes. I already had a few songs that addressed what I was going through personally. But when that song found me, I realized the album was going to have an introspective side to it. So that song became my therapy; when I started playing that, it just uplifted me."

'Make It Paradise' is built almost entirely around the ukulele playing of Hawaiian artist Jake Shimabukuro. Aside from a cameo by his brother Stephen, the only vocal guest on 'Brightside' is American singer Nikka Costa, who appears on the soulful gospel track 'Hey People Now'.

For 'Many Mourn For Bob', an acoustic tribute to his father Bob, Ziggy sampled fragments from well-known interviews with Bob himself.

Finally, it is also worth noting that 'Brightside' is once again an album recorded using 432Hz tuning instead of the standard 440Hz.

Ziggy sums it up as follows: "The music we call reggae music is a living thing. It's not something of the past that you just make a copy of. It's something that keeps on living. Living things move and breathe, so I think that it is in my DNA to keep the music living. My mind is as curious and as open as it was when I was a baby. It has a lot more information now, but it's never closed off. You don't forget the past, you don't dismiss it, but you don't stop moving forward!"

Straightforward yet deeply personal album from an artist who has nothing left to prove.