Music in Exile

Amazing discovery. Gorgeous music and a powerful, inspiring story of resilience and resistance.

Typically good African beat but the single bar repetition in practically every track became tiresome.
I was glad when it got to the end.
Didn’t give it a second listen as I couldn’t take any more.

I bet Peter Gabriel and his WOMAD lot were all over this like a rash

I dunno, I'm not a fan of bluesy stuff. And this is pretty repetitive. And never was a fan of guitar noodling.

Fun record with an interesting story, I think it would help more if I could understand the lyrics as the vocals aren't the main appeal for me. The band's performance has a good groove, it is quite polished and in places feels like it has a very modern pop production. I also thought several of these were really catchy and stand out. I would go with a 6/10

I wasn't expecting this, but it was very interesting. Definitely something new and unique, so I appreciate that. I was pleasantly surprised. I liked it.

This is like royalty free background music that YouTube would suggest to you instead after you've had a copyright strike on one of your videos, except the vocalist is kinda cool and charismatic. These are a desert blues/afro-rock band from Bamako, Mali, with an interesting and rather distressing backstory which overshadows the fairly average music on offer. Props to them for navigating those circumstances, using this album as a cathartic release and as a huge middle finger to forms of oppression essentially, but the end result isn't really for me.

Bluesy rock with a Malian twist, makes a lovely combination

It's nothing overcomplicated or massively groundbreaking, just a pleasant and catchy one

Having thoroughly enjoyed their 2025 album ‘heritage’ i was pleased to see this pop up.

Unlike some of the other albums i’ve had on this list, that aren’t in English, this didn’t feel like it possibly lost something to my ability to enjoy it. The musical just picks you up and sweeps you along and whilst i might know what the lyrics content is telling me, it just fits rhythmically.

This was a huge surprise.

The generator previously gave me Djam Leelii by Senegalese artists Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, and I struggled with the repetitive licks, finding it pretty annoying by the end. But Songhoy Blues doing similar short repetitive musical phrases I didn't mind it at all. In fact, I was really tapping my foot. It felt like something that was traditional from Mali but very modern at the same time.

I had a good 10 minutes trying to find a lyric translation for the full album, sadly coming up empty-handed. I wish I knew what the songs specifically meant, rather than just knowing the general theme. The general theme is heartbreakingly sad though; fleeing your country because the people ruling it believe playing music is a sin.

I really, really enjoyed this album, more so than I ever could have expected (though I would say the first half is stronger than the second, particularly the first two tracks).

I want a half star again, but in it's absence:

4/5

This was great! Groovy, joyful, varied!

Trancey blues with cool interlocking guitar parts, driving bass and drum parts, and a youthful up-tempo rock energy. Not sure why there's such a boundless appetite for this kind of samey genre in the festival circuit, but it's much more exciting music than dad blues rock, so the more the merrier.

What a fun album!

Its albums like this that make me love this project. I'd never have heard this otherwise

Very enjoyable

4 ⭐️

Outstanding

Reigniting the fuse of blues rock, Songhoy Blues demonstrates precisely what's wrong with the label 'world music.' W/ 'world' meaning native to any locale other than the Western colonial powers, the rest of the world, even if they have little to do w/ each other, gets lumped together, while the West remains out in front. So, tho it's true that Songhoy Blues' features guitar work that resembles John Lee Hooker and Lead Belly - Garba Toure, a member of the band, fessed up, 'Besides, we love electric guitars too much' - Music in Exile isn't merely a blues rock record that happens to come out of Timbuktu. It's Malian too, it's music in exile but home music as well. Special tracks: 'Al Hassidi Terei,' 'Wayei,' 'Petit Merier,' 'Mali.'

Has some good beats, but not understanding a single word saps any enjoyment I can get from it.

Better than Coldplay

esse eh fortíssimo. o documentário que eles tão tbm parece super interessante
no mais, música como forma de resistência é pica em qualquer lugar do mundo! chique demais!

Nutty guitar all the way through
Wish I could dive deeper into some lyrics
Petit Metier stood out in particular

Miellyttävän rento levy, ja kiva kuulla taas afrikastakin jotain uutta! 4/5

Outstanding album, absolutely brilliant. Get big Ali Farka Touré vibes from it. One of the best I’ve had in a while.