Djam Leelii

Fun, different, thoroughly enjoyable.

This is very interesting and I really appreciate getting something so different. But it does feel a bit like the stupid idiots who made this list added so many 2000s british indie rock albums, that they started feeling guilty and googled "best non-english albums of all time" or something like that. This is decent but does feel a bit repetetive and too long after a while, definitely at least 3 stars.

This is annoying. Sometimes an instrument does something I like, but it's too repetitive. The singing isn't great. Just not worth ever listening to again.

I don't know what to say about this album. I have a blind spot in my musical taste for stuff that is in a different language that I can't understand. The music is fine, although can get a bit repetitive at times, and it doesn't really light any fires inside me. Maybe if I understood the words, I'd have a better chance of connecting with it.
It's perfectly fine, I'm glad the generator threw this album up for me to listen to, but I'm happy not to go back to it.

When this started, it seemed like the perfect soundtrack for a chilled Sunday morning (and a nice change after a run of albums by artists I already knew). But I must admit that towards the end, I started to get a bit bored with it.

Perfectly pleasant to listen to.

Really good album but some of the songs area a tad too long. Take say half an hour off this and it’s a definite five star

I'm not going to question what should and should not be on the list. I find people who do to be selfish and unfairly critical. Its not our list and I'm grateful to have different choices each day to listen to. Usually stuff I've never heard before or that I would choose to listen to.

And this is one. Probably one of the best in it's particular genre. I don't know. And whilst a reasonable listen it's not really recorded for me. Similarly I wouldn't choose to read a book written in Albanian. The music was pleasant if a bit repetitive and long. Nothing I hated. Nothing I particularly loved. So a fair and average 3

En dos semanas dos discos de este autor. No es una música que me disguste, pero si que un disco entero es mucha inmersión en la música étnica. Así que este me ha sorprendido menos y se ha hecho más pesado, la reiteración le ha perjudicado.

Repetitive and long. It’s not bad but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it.

In the right mood this is the perfect album. Just laid back easy African jams. It probably helped that I listened to it while pretty sleepy

Cool album, just not something I think I'd revisit.

The Good: We learn a different language!
The Bad: We can’t find a teacher for this language…
The Ugly: Trying to figure out if Djam Leelii means Pearl Jam…

I wonder how many will figure out that last line…

What’s there to say about these “world” albums that we are given every now and again? I would say, not enough…
However, as with my comments on any other world albums, it would be nice to know what exactly the singer is singing about.

Reading the story of Baaba Maal, I am fascinated by this story, and thus by this album. Listening to his mentor wail in Pulaar makes me feel like a baby trying to understand what the grown-ups are telling me to do.

I will agree with some of the comments people have left regarding the album, that it is a tad too long… if this would have been around the 35 minute mark, this would be a 4 1/2* album for me… instead, 3 1/2*

This is pretty chill, meditative, almost desert blues but more laid back.

I wanted to like this more. The instrumentals were interesting and quite enjoyable, but the vocals annoyed me. The different language didn't bother me, how voice just grated at me. Give me this album as an instrumental one, and I'd be happy to listen to this again. 3/5

Really chill Senegali music. I'd be happy to have this on in the background anywhere. But it's unlikely that I'll think to put it on very frequently.

Ethereal yet annealed by the accessible, spiritual yet wholly tempered by the objective and earthbound, Djam Leelii is almost frightfully gorgeous. It takes a special kind of artist to have a grip on 'peace,' especially when it's the primary affect the music offers, but for Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck, peace isn't sand that filters thru your fingers but something far sturdier, a hoisted dream bestowed on horizontal rather than vertical airwaves: this isn't music that comes from on high, but paradisal it still is. One is struck more by the vocals and guitar playing than anything percussive, but each track is as rhythmic as it is melodic. At seventy-two minutes, it's long, but only for those who undervalue bliss is it too long. An astonishing record.

Extra star for not being British

I’m at a 4.

Just a better version of Lam Toro, really. My big issues with that album were that it was too long, and that the sense of progression got completely lost by track 7 and beyond, with each track hitting a stale point way too fast, making the whole thing feel like an exercise in enduring repetition. Good soundscapes, but not very compelling listens.

This album remedies that to a nicer degree; even though each track here is about 6:02 long on average (if you’re only doing the original 8 tracks like I did), they don’t hit that stale point early enough for it to be a bigger deal. Yes, there’s still repetition abound in this thing, and mileage may ultimately vary on how much you can endure the first minute or two of each track, which sets up the foundation that gets layered upon every time, but for my tastes, it’s a less bothersome repetition than what was present on Lam Toro. It also helps that a lot more of these tracks have a better overall structure, cutting out some of (but not all) of the “fat” that got left in. There’s not as many moments of tracks looping at a specific point for 2-3 minutes at a time, and the vocals have a much more constant presence, giving each track a good sense of progression. Overall, I enjoyed this one a lot more, just because it’s paced much better.

That said, I’m still only at a 4 because, for the most part, this album never quite evoked a bigger sense of imagery for me. On other primarily instrumental albums, I can feel the vibe a soundscape is going for, and get sort of whisked away by my brain, connecting to the music in a deeper fashion. This album only got there maybe two or three times, which isn’t bad for 8 tracks, but the other 5 or 6 times literally evoked nothing from me. They’re good listens, but they are basically just wallpaper to the brain. If this album did a little more with its sound design, perhaps I could’ve entered that state more, but the music speaks for itself well enough. It just didn’t quite speak to *me* like that. It’s a good one though, and it clicked nicely for me. Still just a 4, ending a streak of 5s for me, but a solid 4 regardless. I wouldn’t blame anyone if they went for a 3 or lower, though.

Nice laid-back vibes here, but nothing really exciting about any of it.