Most Overlooked Album of the Year 2007

[Gordon Neill]

I've been mulling over this most-overlooked-album thing and, me being me, why Aman Aman's effort isn't right at the top of most best-of-the-year lists. I think it's to do with fashion.

We world music types like to think that we have a pretty comprehensive view, as we loftily survey the planet's music. But actually the world would look pretty weird, as seen through our eyes. China, the most populous country on the planet, is just a tiny dot (until Sa Dingding, I wasn't even sure if Chinese people were physically able to sing). It turns out that Jamaica is much larger than the South American mainland (which has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s). Africa is basically Mali and Senegal, with some guitar nomads wandering about the top and some tiny dots (Kenya, Uganda etc...) to the right hand side. Asia is dramatically smaller than geography teachers would have us believe. Oh, and Australasia doesn't actually exist.

So albums by the likes of Tinariwen and Orchestra Baobab almost automatically feature at the top of lists. It's not that they're bad albums, but are they really all that remarkable, or simply a refinement of the stuff they've been doing for years?

[howard male]

Jonathan wrote -

As for The Good, The Bad, And The Queen, that got a buzz as I recall when it came out, enough that I made the effort to hear it — and I hated it (and I try not to hate, I really do)

Yes, it's a miserable record and doesn't at all conjure up London in any meaningful way as several critics have suggested it does. Also, you could hardly say old Damon and his pals have been overlooked, Dayna, although maybe they have on your side of the pond.

As for my choice, I was so concerned that Wunmi's 'ALA' would fall between two stools (dance/R&B & World) - sorry, three stools - that it was the only album I reviewed this year for all three publications I write for - I was a one-man publicity machine for that woman. Did it make any difference? You bet it didn't.

[Con Murphy]

I've been mulling over this most-overlooked-album thing and, me being me, why Aman Aman's effort isn't right at the top of most best-of-the-year lists. I think it's to do with fashion.

We world music types like to think that we have a pretty comprehensive view, as we loftily survey the planet's music. But actually the world would look pretty weird, as seen through our eyes. China, the most populous country on the planet, is just a tiny dot (until Sa Dingding, I wasn't even sure if Chinese people were physically able to sing). It turns out that Jamaica is much larger than the South American mainland (which has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s). Africa is basically Mali and Senegal, with some guitar nomads wandering about the top and some tiny dots (Kenya, Uganda etc...) to the right hand side. Asia is dramatically smaller than geography teachers would have us believe. Oh, and Australasia doesn't actually exist.

So albums by the likes of Tinariwen and Orchestra Baobab almost automatically feature at the top of lists. It's not that they're bad albums, but are they really all that remarkable, or simply a refinement of the stuff they've been doing for years?

Some wonderful generalisations there, Gordon – I mean that in a good way, as I’ve said before I’m all for them – but I do think taste comes into it at least as much as fashion.

For example, there’s no getting away from it - West African music is more palatable to many western people’s ears than that of the Asian continent, even to those of us who make the effort to “retrainâ€

[Gordon Neill]

Con pointed out:

Some wonderful generalisations there, Gordon

I'm not sure about the 'wonderful' but, yes, there was some pretty sweeping statements in what I said.

Sure, a lot of it is down to personal preference and taste. And, yes, there are certain types of music which are more likely to appeal to current Western tastes. I keep trying with various Asian music. Some sticks, most doesnt.

Con also said:

But I’m guessing that many people who prefer same-again Tinariwen and Orchestra Baobab albums to Sephardic music do so out of personal preference, not because they are world music fashionistas.

Aha! At last I can disagree with you about something! OK, I was overstating things, possibly, maybe, perhaps, arguably.... But, in my view, most people go for Tinariwen or Orchestra Baobab (or whoever) rather than Sephardic music (or whatever) not because they actively prefer it, but because they haven't heard much of the alternatives.

And I do think that there's an element of fashion (or at least sheep-like behaviour) amongst world music types. [I know, another sweeping generalisation]. For a while Balkan brass was all the rage. Currently it seems that anyone from the Sahara with an electric banjo and a long robe is frightfully important. Next year, it might be Turkey (I hope so, 'cos the little Turkish music that I've heard sounds very interesting). But maybe that's just me being a bit goat-like.

[Con Murphy]

Aha! At last I can disagree with you about something! OK, I was overstating things, possibly, maybe, perhaps, arguably.... But, in my view, most people go for Tinariwen or Orchestra Baobab (or whoever) rather than Sephardic music (or whatever) not because they actively prefer it, but because they haven't heard much of the alternatives.

Sorry to be pedantic, but are you quite sure it's most people? I agree that in an ideal world Aman Aman would have had more exposure, and as a result it might have done better than it did in some polls. But I don't go with this implication that most people are so sheep-like. That would be like me saying that people on this forum probably only prefer Aman Aman to El-P because they read about it here. If you stopped following SOTW fashion and listened to hard-core hip-hop instead, you'd be sure to prefer that. Sorry, I take your point, but I'm sceptical about this "most" business.

[howard male]

Gordon wrote -

But, in my view, most people go for Tinariwen or Orchestra Baobab (or whoever) rather than Sephardic music (or whatever) not because they actively prefer it, but because they haven't heard much of the alternatives.

Well, at least as far as Tinariwen goes, Justin Adam's offers an interesting explanation as to their appeal to us Brits, on CG's Radio 3 show this week - it's that old pentatonic scale business again. Adams even gives us a quick doodle on the guitar to demonstrate that a Tinariwen riff is disturbingly close to a Scottish folk ballad - whatever next!

[Gordon Neill]

Con asked:

are you quite sure it's most people?

Well, no, not really. I haven't had the time to go and ask them all. I just got a bit overexcited and made that bit up.

I suppose all I'm expressing is my sheer bafflement (is there such a word? there is now) at how prominently the Tinariwen album, for example, features in all these lists. It's a perfectly decent CD, if a bit dull. I quite like it, but it's not much different from what they've done before. At times, world music folks just seem so conservative.

Howard mentioned that:

a Tinariwen riff is disturbingly close to a Scottish folk ballad

Ah. Possibly this is why I'm a bit underwhelmed with them.

[Con Murphy]

I suppose all I'm expressing is my sheer bafflement (is there such a word? there is now) at how prominently the Tinariwen album, for example, features in all these lists. It's a perfectly decent CD, if a bit dull. I quite like it, but it's not much different from what they've done before. At times, world music folks just seem so conservative.

Now we're back on track agreeing again. I can stop arguing now :-)

[matt]

My Year end round-up and mix from some selected LPS here:
http://matsuli.blogspot.com

But neglected LP of the year for me is:
> Me'Shell Ndegeocello - The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams

[Rob Hall]

My Year end round-up and mix from some selected LPS here:
http://matsuli.blogspot.com

But neglected LP of the year for me is:
> Me'Shell Ndegeocello - The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams

I'd be very interested to find out/hear more of this Matt. Is it anything like her last one, Dance of the Infidel (which I was disappointed by)?

[howard male]

Rob wrote -

I'd be very interested to find out/hear more of this Matt. Is it anything like her last one, Dance of the Infidel (which I was disappointed by)?

Me too - I've got her first three and then kind of lost track of her a bit. I liked the track Nikki played at the DJ Relay - was that on this album, Nikki?

[Nick Boyes]

Jonathon E wrote

Straight No Chaser will be much missed, although I had rather drifted away from it over the past few years. [/i].

I also miss that mag but its disappearance has saved me lots of pennies.
My most neglected album was Koop - 'Koop Islands
although I see it was recorded in 2006

[matt]

This is the AMG review:
Say what you will about bassist, songwriter, singer, bandleader, and arranger Me'Shell Ndegéocello, any box you attempt to put her into is not possibly big enough to hold her creativity and restless, unwieldy aesthetic vision. On "The Sloganeer: Paradise," a tune in which she equates the bland, complicit nature of blindly living modern life with committing suicide, she sings: "To know me is to know I love with/My imagination." It's a summation of her entire career thus far, and this album furthers that notion exponentially. The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams is Ndegéocello's debut for Decca; it is wilder than Cookie: An Anthropological Mixtape, or her last recording, The Spirit Music Jamia: Dance of the Infidel. The latter set was a project that indulged her love of postmodern jazz and engaged in improvisation. She directed an ensemble that included Oliver Lake, Don Byron, Jack DeJohnette, Kenny Garrett, Ron Blake, Brandon Ross, Lalah Hathaway, Cassandra Wilson, and others. It walked a line between tight song-oriented material and longer jam-based tunes, and she didn't really sing on it. That's remedied here, and her sultry, smoky voice is heard on virtually every cut. Musically, this albums walks through walls. There are funky soul tunes whose backdrops are full of psychedelic music that would make the latter-day Jimi Hendrix smile in delight (think the material from Cry of Love). There are jazz-oriented tunes that slip toward pop, folk, and whole-tone folk songs. The lyrical content engages spiritual concerns and carnal love more often than not in the same song. And while she once more employs a wildly diverse collection of collaborators that include everyone from Ross and Lake to Pat Metheny, Oumou Sangare, Robert Glasper, Mike Severson, Daniel Jones, Doyle Bramhall, David Gilmore (not the one from Pink Floyd), James Newton, and Graham Haynes, she also cut two songs ("Evolution" and the bonus cut "Soul Spaceship"), playing all the instruments herself. So what does it sound like? The future arriving fully formed on the doorstep. It opens provocatively enough with noted American Muslim teacher and Islamic scholar Shiek Hamza Yusuf reciting the predictions of Mohammed to a backwash of Ross' guitar and ambient sounds. (Yusuf was the man who appeared with George W. Bush after 9/11 and denounced the attacks and all religious violence, and is working for a return to Islamic sciences as well as assisting Western governments in understanding Islamic culture and Muslims.) It moves into a rock & roll dreamscape called "Sloganeering: Paradise" awash in keyboards, a drummer playing drum and bass breaks that would make Prince jealous. "Evolution" is a spaced-out psychedelic dirge with few lyrics and a sound field worthy of Hendrix (and indeed her guitar playing is influenced in that direction). The sci-fi jazz of "Virgo," with Lake, Newton, and trombonist George McMullen, hovers and floats in vanguard space before turning into a dreamy pop song with acoustic guitars, synth washes, and samples but is held together with a gorgeous melody and vocal performance (and contains a funky little solo by Lake on alto saxophone). "Shirk" is a gorgeous spiritual duet between Sangare and Ndegéocello with Hervé Sambe and Metheny on acoustic guitars. Metheny also appears on "Article," the following cut with a guest appearance by Thandiswa Mazwai singing with Ndegéocello, but this time out she pops that bass of hers in response. It's a dizzying cut with shifting rhythms and textures, and call-and-response vocals that feel more like counterpoint as different sonic and textural motifs move across the front of the tune. All this and the record is just over halfway. The deep spirituality at work here has been present in Ndegéocello's work arguably since the beginning, but it has become more pronounced in recent years. That said, the beautiful and poetic expressions of desire as it encounters both flesh and the divine are soulful, without pretension or artifice. "Michelle Johnson" is a freewheeling exploration of electronic outer realms, tough guitar, and bass-heavy funk, with killer drum kit work by Deantoni Parks and hand percussion by Gilmar Gomes. The sonic treatments by Scott Mann and Chad Royce are all structure to fill the space around the artist's basslines and expressive belly-deep voice -- and you can be the judge as to which Michelle Johnson she's speaking of here. "Solomon" is among the most beautiful songs this woman has ever written. It is presented in a painterly way, illustrated and framed inside a warm bubbly electronic backdrop that gives way to languid melody, a spine-moving bassline that grooves low and slow on this futuristic soul lullaby. The official album closes with the completely out-to-lunch "Relief: A Stripper Classic," which is the true missing link between urban soul, heavy metal, and slow, downtempo funk -- all of it with a pronounced hook and refrain. "Soul Spaceship" is the place where Sly Stone, Amp Fiddler, and Millie Jackson meet in a big bass sci-fi wonderland presided over by Rick James and Teena Marie! The basslines and synth lines are huge, drum machines abound and skitter, and all the while Ndegéocello and Sy Smith make a beautifully grooving mess with the vocals. Ultimately, The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams, with its irony, sincerity, seeming contradiction, and elliptical paradox, is the most expansive, complex record yet released by this always provocative artist. It will take more than a single listen to warm up to, but once you actually take it in, it will be one of her recordings you go back to over and again because while it gives up its secrets slowly, it gives the listener something new each time too. Wild, visionary, and marvelously tough, this is a groover that will turn you inside out.

[Dayna]

I don't understand why it seems like I'm the only one that likes the Gipsy Kings-Pasajero. It has some good music on it. I admit I haven't listened to it as much since I over played it, at first & found other things.

[tulsehill charlie]

The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams, with its irony, sincerity, seeming contradiction, and elliptical paradox, is the most expansive, complex record yet released by this always provocative artist

I had to go and have a little lie down after reading this review. My head was spinning.