Dem Naa

Winner of the prestigious Radio France International Discovery award of 2009, the debut album from Senegalese reggae singer Naby was recorded in Dakar, Bamako and Paris. The songs are a mixture of plain¬speaking reggae and subtler acoustic songs. While there are a few nuggets of goodness in there to enjoy, these are tempered by missed opportunities.

What’s lacking is the strong musicianship that other African reggae artists, like Ivorian Tiken Jah Fakoly, have used to impress upon the world that African reggae can be as good as anything from Jamaica. This album is heavy on the synthesizers, as heard on ‘Rew Mi’, where a trumpet solo just about manages to coax the song back from the edge, or on ‘Jubbo’, wherein a lilting sabar drum line does little to relieve the pressure of the weak vocals and hit-and-miss composition. That said, there are some good moments making this worth a listen. The stirring ‘Kunfa Yakun’ is hung around a solid framework of sabar beats and electric guitar riffs, the reggae beats working perfectly with the Wolof rhythms. There’s some raw kamalengoni riffs on ‘Njiite’, which sound so good that one wonders why they aren’t all over this record. With stronger compositions and more punch, this album could have been so much more.