Un Autre Blanc

This is hailed as the veteran Malian singer's final album: at nearly 70, Keita is ‘retiring.’ Certainly, Un Autre Blanc is a worthy bow-out, with all original songs that feature several guest vocalists. Listeners can bask in a sound that celebrates the advantages of Salif's electric and acoustic phases. His detailed production frames a host of instruments, sensitively arrayed. Individual flourishes come briefly to the fore, as the emphasis tilts subtly from player to player in an expansive ensemble of strings, keyboards, horns, percussion and backing vocals.

The opener ‘Were Were’ establishes itself as a classic number straight away. Salif's voice launches into high feeling, and is soon joined by a female chorus, then a carefully distorted Hervé Samb guitar solo. Salif duets with Angélique Kidjo on ‘Itarafo’, a strummy, rock skip suiting her bold delivery. Parisian rapper MHD steps in for some closing rhymes. The sparse ‘Tiranke’ is in thrall to a foreground vocal, which makes the following ‘Lerou Lerou’ sound alarmingly punchy. The only disappointment is ‘Ngamale’, where Salif makes a late entry into the AutoTune scene; his vocals sound particularly at odds with the visiting Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Alpha Blondy guests on the closing ‘Mansa Fo La’, making for a somewhat melancholy Afro-reggae skank.