Jahmekya by Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers

Jahmekya arrived in 1991 on the heels of Conscious Party and One Bright Day, and on it Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers, the family group made up of Bob and Rita Marley's children, dragged their reggae into the digital present. Glenn Rosenstein produced it with the band, and the sound is harder and more modern than anything they'd done: programmed beats that owe a debt to Jamaica's dancehalls, synthesizers crowding in on the guitars, and toasting turning up right next to Ziggy's singing.

It's also the record where Stephen Marley steps forward, taking lead vocals on two tracks and writing or co-writing close to a third of the songs, with sisters Sharon and Cedella in the fold. Critics heard a genuine reggae groove running at pop tempos, horns and all, and the album earned a Grammy nomination and reached number 63 on the Billboard 200.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.