Timbuktu (2022)/ Sangare, Oumou

From the explosive start of Wassulu Don, you know that this album is something different, something special. This may have something to do with the COVID pandemic and lockdown. A visit to the US was not so much curtailed as enforced, and Oumou liked it so much she bought herself a house and settled down to some very fruitful solitary confinement, writing ten of the eleven songs that appear on Timbuktu. The album opener’s raw guitar and West African rhythms are instantly compelling and contrast nicely against the gentler Sira, on which the guitar is more refined. The song is a warning to the children of the wealthy not to fall into delinquency and run the risk of not making the best of their lives. The pace is turned down still further for Degui N’Kenena, a song of separation, loss and loneliness, a flute floating delicately in the background and the languid-paced title track, followed by Sarama that pops out, bright and infectious, belying its subject of betrayal. (Folk radio)|