Madíbá

It was always going to be a tough ask to follow up on Blick Bassy's seminal 2019 album 1958 (A Top of the World in April 2019, #146, and front cover story that same year), which bagged Songlines’ 2020 Best African album award. The Cameroonian leaves behind that uncompromising musical take on his country's war of independence against France to plunge (no pun intended) into deeply philosophical reflections on water. Madíbá (‘water’ in Douala) is 12 fables devoted to this element's rarity, necessity and ‘vital power.’ The reflections are bathed in the 49-year-old's own childhood, and the laborious task of transporting drinking water from the local river. It explains why he is so invested in improving water accessibility to all and sensitising us to its global crisis.

Noble intentions, indeed, but the musical translation of this emergency is flat and devoid of the spikiness that so imbued his previous albums. The delicacy of Bassy's aerial vocals remains. The originality – combining voice with brass section, synthesizer and textures of Afro-soul – continues to forge Bassy's singular path. But it's too smooth, an electro-modernity which is a still lake, that does not move this reviewer as much as its strong messages of tolerance, preservation and equal access to water.