Amadou & Mariam

Back to the real world, with record reviews and tax forms and phone bills and such.

Here’s my Amadou & Mariam review, up today at Blurt, in which I ponder, “Why does the world’s most life-affirming music always come from the most troubled places?” I gave it an 8, but I genuinely thought about a 9…it’s very pop, not at all like some of those raw, field recorded African rock comps you may be listening to, but quite good in its own way. Here’s the review.


And a video of the first song off Welcome to Mali, the Damon Albarn-produced single “Sabali”.