[Reggae], as played by Bob Marley and the Wailers, is both a well-spring of homespun adages and a canny cultural tool with great facility for adaptation and innovation…. [The] band's evolution is so dramatic that one realizes the music has never lingered in any stylistic camp for more than two years. In fact, the Wailers are the only group to have thrived during these many phases…. Still, it's surprising to find Marley, on the live Babylon by Bus, turning a new musical corner with an altogether buoyant sound that's religious in its life-affirming Rastafarian underpinnings and universal in its romantic longing….

Despite the sternness of the material, Rastaman Vibration was Bob Marley's first attempt at joining the immediacy of reggae's volatile social and religious commentary with the visceral release of a unique brand of rockin' soul. On succeeding Wailers albums (Exodus, Kaya), he eschewed the grim dictums of classics like "Concrete Jungle," "Burnin' and Lootin'," "No Woman, No Cry" and "Johnny Was" … in favor of such songs of hope, affection and fulfillment as "Jamming," "Is This Love" and "Exodus." These last three are given especially joyous treatment on the new double set, Marley's most fully realized record since its polar opposite, 1974's chilling Natty Dread. (p. 97)

From the raucous invocation of Selassie's divinity that kicks off "Positive Vibration" on side one to the unabashed good cheer of side four's wrap-up rendition of "Jamming," we hear a new side of Bob Marley—fanciful, lovelorn, vulnerable—that's as riveting as any of his sulfurous early tirades. (pp. 97-8)

Babylon by Bus offers a fine sampling of material from the group's Seventies repertoire, ranging from the wrathful "Rebel Music" and "Rat Race" to such sultry dance tunes as "Stir It Up." Yet each number is now infused with a sprightly clarity and tenderness that redoubles the emotional impact….

Babylon by Bus reverberates with an awesome faith in the power of love in all its difficult and rewarding forms. It's a statement that Bob Marley and the Wailers have been building up to for some time, and it explodes here with a humanity and an urgency as potent as any of the band's previous darker calls to arms. For sheer emotional impact, Marley's strongest song on Live! was a stark, accusatory "Them Belly Full (but We Hungry)," while the most affecting track on the current album is "Is This Love," whose jubilant message of ardor is every bit as stirring as that of its predecessor.

Bob Marley helped invent reggae and now, with stunning effectiveness, he's managed to reinvent it. After a long, uneven period of experimentation, the wily spider man has transcended the genre's limitations and, in the process, established himself as one of the most exciting rock innovators of the late Seventies. Let the word go forth: Babylon by Bus is a work of captivating originality, easily the most intelligent party album in years. (p. 98)