Balbalou

"The Senegalese singer's star has waned since his startling arrival a decade ago, but this lavishly produced fifth album finds him back on form. Recorded in Sweden and Paris, it's packed with sleek mbalax grooves, mixing funk horns and talking drums, and fronted by Lô's sweet, dancing vocals, at times falsetto, at others husky. There's a lovely cross-Atlantic fusion on Degg Gui, with Brazilian chanteuse Flavia Coelho, a duet with Mali's Oumou Sangaré, and a sultry title track threaded with the Miles-like trumpet of Ibrahim Maalouf".

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"Cheikh Lô makes a stylish return to the CD players of the discerning. As ever, this new album is light-footed, charming and insistent. Also, in its gentle way, it is not short of necessary wallop ... It is not hard to hear traces of [his soukous] heroes [Tabu Ley, Papa Wemba] in his high, easy voice - understated but open and to the point. In the arrangements you hear traces of many kinds of music. There's a dash of reggae (...) - and mbalax - and more Latin styles. But all his influences are well-assimilated, falling easily under his own wider style which is literate, accurate and thoroughly sympathetic. Produced by Swedish Andreas Unge with calm rigour, this is mature stuff".