Welcome to Mali (Amadou & Mariam, 2008)

[madali]

Welcome to Mali (Amadou & Mariam, 2008)

Great album from blind Mali male-female duo, but long and runs out of steam towards the end.

1) Sabali: Best song of the album. The out-of-the-world vocals with the everything-mixed-in sort of music makes this re-listenable and the  “bye bye” at the end makes it stand on its own.  5/5

2) Ce N'est Pas Bon: 4/5

3) Magossa: 3/5

4) Djama: 3/5

5) Je Te Kiffe: 3/5

6) Masiteladi: 4/5

7) Africa: Whenever I listen to this song, I feel like shaking my black booty a bit. Africaaaaa africaaaaa africaaaa.4/5

8) Compagnon de la Vie: 2/5

9) Unissons-nous: 3/5

10) Bozos: 2/5

11) I Follow You [Nia Na Fin]: Lame lyrics with English spoken in a bad accent, good thing I don’t understand the rest of the album, because maybe most of it is corny lyrics. “Baby you go east I follow you baby you go west I follow you baby you go north I follow you baby you go south I follow you”. Blind stalkers. “When you go to school baby I follow you when you go to work baby I follow you when you go to downtown baby I follow you when you go home baby I follow you” Creepy. 2/5

12) Welcome to Mali: 3/5

13) Batoma: 2/5

14) Sebeke: 2/5

15) Boula [Hidden Track]: 2/5

Average Song Rating: 2.93

Diversity:  Feels same-y after a while. 0/1

Atmosphere: The album title is appropriate. Welcome to Mali, indeed. 0.5/1

Listenability: A bit long, but it’s generally not boring. 0.5/1

Average Bonus Rating: 0.3

Total Album Rating:  3 (3.23)

[madali]

I've always been annoyed that I haven't reviewed the music albums I have listened to, but I couldn't do it, because I could never think of what to write. So, this is the only way I can do it. Complicated rating system.

[X.]

It's fine. I like that you are writing about how you *feel* as opposed to analyzing things critically. Ratings of songs that come with comments are more credible though and makes me pay attention. At the end of the day, whatever gets the job done, I guess!

[madali]

I know, I but I can't think of what to write for every song, and that is what kept me from writing music reviews, but I figure if I just start, even with just ratings, it will eventually be easier. When I started film reviews, I couldn't write more than a sentence and after 200-300 such one liners, it became easier. So maybe after reviewing 300 albums, I'll figure out what to write about.

I figure at least with rating each song and album at the minimum, I know albums and songs I liked when I go through  them after a few years.