Music in Exile

Been a fan of desert blues for awhile through artists like Bombino - but this is a whole new level.

To listen to these guys and not see how all of rock and roll came from the traditional rhythms of Mali and west Africa!

The blues, the rock, the funk - I know the gene is based in repeating sections, but the sound is hypnotizing in the best of ways

It’s great to hear a straight-up rock record coming out of Mali, especially one shaped so clearly by displacement and resilience. 𝘔𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘯 𝘌𝘹𝘪𝘭𝘦 blends desert blues with tight, modern guitar work in a way that feels both familiar and refreshing. Still, the album doesn’t hit me as hard as I hoped, and within the context of the 1001 list it feels like part of an overcompensating push to represent African music more heavily. A solid listen, but not a standout for me.

Holy shit this is great!

More Malian bad boys. Works for me.

*Cool, unique blues sound

great, great, great! some of the newer are additions are really odd, but that's a great album!

This album is pretty cool. It takes the familiarities of blues and applies them in an African context. This doesn’t really do anything new, but I didn’t think it really has to. It’s a fun time. Favorites were Soubour, Al Hassidi Terei, and Nick.

I am impressed at how fresh this sounds, a familiar genre (blues) given a fresh coat of paint. Interesting writing throughout and a consistently good mood.

This was really fun and enjoyable to listen to. I feel like I would've enjoyed this much more if I understood the lyrics. Still, I liked this band's sound.

Happy to hear this for the first time. This band rips.

It starts off really strong, but then kind of peters out at the end. But given the contract of the album, it's quite an amazing feat.

Oooh, Malian music, always a feast for the ears. I hit "add to library" before I finished the album. Excellent inclusion on the list, absolutely fantastic all around.

This is the good shit, this is the kid of hidden gems I love to find, this is why I signed up for this.

Quite an interesting blues sound on this album. I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I should have, but I still think it's very good.

3.5/5.0: Very Good

every now and then in a sea of mediocre british post punk you come across a hidden gem like this one. this was a refreshing listen that reminded me why i do this project. these guys absolutely rip

I’m at a 4.5 that I’d love to keep there, but I think I’ll bump it down to a 4.

This album is a brilliant ball of electric guitar-infused blues rock, with a West Africa lean, brought on by the exile forced upon its band members to ongoing civil occupations caused by Sharia law. Granted, my geopolitical knowledge is rather minimal, so I’m certainly not an expert to speak on how this album came together, but I’m very glad they’ve channeled whatever frustrations that must’ve arisen from the situation into a great album. I don’t really understand any lyrics here, but I’m guessing based on a good chunk of the vocal passion thrown in that there’s certainly some level of political content in the lyrics, even in broad, chanted, rhythmic strokes. The instrumentation is where this album shines, with this album at its very best when it approaches everything with a rock lean at higher tempos. The opening track “Soubour” won me over immediately, and it felt like the album was gonna easily roll all the way to a 5.

The thing that’s stopping me from giving this a 5, and sort of stumbling down to a 4, is simply in the luster of the album going away to my ears. It’s a very dazzling album when it starts, and it carries its momentum well through the first 6 tracks or so, but save for “Petit Metier” & “Mali”, I found myself catching a generalized production pattern that slowly pulled the energy away. I think most of the last few tracks boil down to an acoustic guitar melody, a hypnotic chanty vocal style, and a slightly looping bass / percussion track, done in a way that doesn’t feel as distinct & as enrichening as the first 6 tracks came across. If you listen to a track like “Nick” or “Ai Tchere Bele”, there’s a noticeable bounciness to the percussion, coming across in a way that almost feels sort of like an Irish jig – that energy is infectious, and even when it loops a little bit, you don’t feel it because it’s just fun. When this album slows down then, that sameyness feels more amplified, and the later tracks just didn’t hook me as well as a result. They’d probably feel great on their own, but as a flowing album experience, it just didn’t fully hit for me.

I do think if I had proper translations of the lyrics in front of me (which I could not find to save my life), it could easily change my perspective of some of the atmosphere / tone of the back half of the album, but given that the first half carries itself so strongly from a musical standpoint, that shift in energy doesn’t come across as well to my ears. Don’t get me wrong: this is a *great* album. The issues I have with it are just down to personal taste; I highly recommend it regardless, and I’m very glad it’s on the list, because I certainly wouldn’t have found it otherwise. I’d love to keep this at a 4.5, but given that I found myself more disengaged for the back half of the album, solely from a musical standpoint, I think I’d be lying to myself if I bumped this up to a 5, hence the 4. A highly recommended 4 though.

Favorite track(s): Soubour, Irganda, Al Hassidi Terei

I had the absolute pleasure of hearing Songhoy Blues on the tour promoting this album and, amazing as it is here in it's recorded format, as a live proposition these guys are a phenomenon.

Biased because I saw them live, perhaps, but what a gorgeous fusion of desert sounds and rock this album is.

Vibrant, funky album! Great to have on in the background while doing chores

Great album and vocals.