March 24, 2009

Friendly Reminder: Amadou & Mariam Album Out Today

Photo courtesy Nonesuch

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National borders not only make traveling to my summer compound in Monaco incredibly bothersome (ahem!), they also really gum up CD release schedules. Especially here in the United States of Kiss My Ass, where great music from around the world often gets delayed for months, if not years. Either labels are scared that us slack-jawed yokels just won’t get it, or I guess they need a couple extra months to form brilliant marketing strategies? Whatever, it makes me mad, since we do have the internet in America, and an internationally-savvy press, desperate to jump on the Next Big Thing, isn’t going to wait for a release date 90 days away, so then anybody reading that review has to go searching around for a little Rapidshare RAR file. Who would be so thoughtless? Oh. Well, to make up for it, I’ll act as your release-date alarm system: Malian duo Amadou & Mariam’s Welcome to Mali is finally out today here in the Homeland. Hooray! That means you can give them money on iTunes and everything. Welcome to Mali was for a while the highest-ranking album of 2008 on Metacritic, although the site has since moved it to the 2009 list out of respect for our flag, I guess (where it’s currently tied with Animal Collective for best-reviewed album of this year). Back in November (I know, I’m sorry) I gave the album an enthusiastic review, and I only like it more now; its mishmash of styles and traditions feels both guilelessly celebratory and deeply respectful, even moving. Plus I’m a sucker for that Afropop guitar sound.

After the jump, the oddly affecting video for the Damon Albarn-produced “Sabali,” a more electronic-based track than the rest of the album. You can also isten to the whole album at their web site.

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