Amadou & Mariam - Folia (16/04/2012)
Amadou & Mariam have once again pulled off an album that is like nothing you have ever heard before. Folila is the follow-up to the 2008 album Welcome To Mali. This album has a global sound that is honestly quite refreshing to hear. Modernity and a traditional African influence have been combined to create an album defying music boundaries. A massive list of guest stars includes, Santigold. Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner.
The album opens with Dougou Badia and a mix of chanting and singing that moves the track along and adds just an amazingly different feel to the track. The track moves to show the strengths of Amadou & Mariam and of the album. This track is a seamless crafting of instrumental and vocal melodies that give the viewer a strong feel of how the album is going to open out.
The duo are influenced by legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd as well as traditional African music. The crunching guitar style is reminiscent of legends and weaves throughout the album, even in the slower tracks.
Oh Amadou has brilliant electric blues guitar, which made the track a favourite to listen to. It does not sound as complex as many of the other tracks but the vocals and guitar work well to give this song as much strength as the rest of the album.
The complicated interweaving of the album could seem like too much at some points but the duo have vast amounts of experience at crafting ‘too much’ into just perfect and never go over the top on this album.
C’est Pas Facile Pour Les Aigles is the stand out track of the album. It is the most danceable, catchy track of the album and just calls for anyone to bob along and sing along to both the French and English.
A track that sticks out simply because the English in it stands out is Wari, Amp Fiddler’s vocals works well with the established sound of the duo but does seem a little jarring in comparison to the rest of the album.
Ending with Chérie the album truly has moved through a cycle to this calm ending. The song has a child’s choir singing along and ends with the laughter of the children. The song is reminiscent of a lullaby and of surf music, which together reminds us of how this album is very much a mash-up of culture and genre.
Throughout the album there is a mash-up of genres that would not make sense unless heard. There is hip-hop, country, dancehall, flower-power dance and much more; some of these feature in the same track and while it shouldn’t work it combines to just make this album more of a true global sound of language and sound. Folila is probably Amadou & Mariam’s most accessible album to date and any person looking to taste world music should jump right in to this album. This album is a find that most only hope to find when looking for new music. The album is simply amazing, no other word can be offered up.
Casey Cunningham
The album opens with Dougou Badia and a mix of chanting and singing that moves the track along and adds just an amazingly different feel to the track. The track moves to show the strengths of Amadou & Mariam and of the album. This track is a seamless crafting of instrumental and vocal melodies that give the viewer a strong feel of how the album is going to open out.
The duo are influenced by legends such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Pink Floyd as well as traditional African music. The crunching guitar style is reminiscent of legends and weaves throughout the album, even in the slower tracks.
Oh Amadou has brilliant electric blues guitar, which made the track a favourite to listen to. It does not sound as complex as many of the other tracks but the vocals and guitar work well to give this song as much strength as the rest of the album.
The complicated interweaving of the album could seem like too much at some points but the duo have vast amounts of experience at crafting ‘too much’ into just perfect and never go over the top on this album.
C’est Pas Facile Pour Les Aigles is the stand out track of the album. It is the most danceable, catchy track of the album and just calls for anyone to bob along and sing along to both the French and English.
A track that sticks out simply because the English in it stands out is Wari, Amp Fiddler’s vocals works well with the established sound of the duo but does seem a little jarring in comparison to the rest of the album.
Ending with Chérie the album truly has moved through a cycle to this calm ending. The song has a child’s choir singing along and ends with the laughter of the children. The song is reminiscent of a lullaby and of surf music, which together reminds us of how this album is very much a mash-up of culture and genre.
Throughout the album there is a mash-up of genres that would not make sense unless heard. There is hip-hop, country, dancehall, flower-power dance and much more; some of these feature in the same track and while it shouldn’t work it combines to just make this album more of a true global sound of language and sound. Folila is probably Amadou & Mariam’s most accessible album to date and any person looking to taste world music should jump right in to this album. This album is a find that most only hope to find when looking for new music. The album is simply amazing, no other word can be offered up.
Casey Cunningham