Talé

Baaba Maal did it with 2009's Television. Amadou & Mariam followed last year with Folila. Now Salif Keita has joined the gadarene rush to make that elusive creation: the crossover album with enough authentically African traces to satisfy core fans, but bright and commercial enough to attract a wider audience. Produced by Philippe Cohen Salal of Gotan Project, like Television and Folila the album works only sporadically. That it does so at all is largely due to the still-intact glory of Keita's golden voice. The best tracks – ‘Da', ‘A Demain’ ‘Yalla’ and ‘Talé’ – can be seen as a 21st century update on the synth-heavy, Afro dance-pop of Keita's classic 1987 album, Soro. But there are some fatal train wrecks here, too. ‘C'est Bon, C'est Bon’ finds a perfectly decent Mande pop song ruined by some facile rap clichés from Roots Manuva. ‘Après-Demain’ is a horrible, dubbed-up electro remix of the excellent ‘A Demain’ which not even Manu Dibango's sax playing can save. ‘Samfi’ is Salif-at-the-disco, with the inappropriate aid of a sample from the B52s’ ‘Planet Claire'. ‘Natty’ is a nursery crime, cloyingly dedicated to and featuring the voice of his youngest daughter. American guests Esperanza Spalding and Bobby McFerrin warble to no great purpose. That Talé will fail in its mission can almost be guaranteed. Many of Keita's traditional fans are bound to feel alienated and it is hard to imagine he will capture any new listeners, either. A serious misjudgement.