here comes the AFRICAN GIANT / Burna Boy (2019)

yes very excited about the return of kel-p. i was a little nervous after hearing the first track, which is a hodgepodge, but the rest is pretty great! even the ed sheeran track is fine.

i'll second "science" as an instant fav, with "whiskey" and "vanilla" joining as my initial non-single highlights

Kel-P tangent: had never this track from 2020 before - it’s superb:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzRFoo2WlQ4
Jujuboy Star • I Dey There

i like this a lot. african giant feels increasingly like one of the monumental albums of the last 10 years to me so i hesitate to compare anything else he does to that, it's prob not fair, that was just a lightning strike moment in a few ways. but this does feel like it leans more in that direction -- both in quality & style -- than twice as tall.

i actually like some of the collaborations? there's a bit of a karaoke feel to them, like the blxst song sounds exactly like a blxst song. the ed sheeran one is very much in the vein of his pop singles. but idk, i dig them. burna is just such a compelling vocalist... i love hearing him over the misty soft rock of the sheeran collab. i think the blxst one finds a throughline between their respective sounds even if the songwriting sorta transparently leans in blxst's direction. i also like the j balvin one, he coaxes a tenderness out of balvin that i love but hasn't been present in a lot of his recent music. the khalid one is way too mawkish i'd trash that one & the popcaan one isn't bad but feels forgettable. as a brief diversion into western radio music i enjoy that section of the album... they might even be a bit better than the future & YG tracks on african giant

I need to listen more but my undercooked & vague reaction was it reminded me a bit of Made In Lagos in terms of being extremely smooooth. I do wish the Popcaan feature has instead been the (apparently mythical) Koffee collaboration instead

And totally agree on African Giant being monumental. I don't want to think about this too hard, but it could be my favorite pop album of the 10s

and oh yeah, the Khalid song was the only one I earmarked for future skipping: drowned in syrup

produced and co-written by Jon Bellion, who Fireboy DML declared himself a fanboy of in his Apollo says. he must be so jealous (…) right now.

*days

I really like this too, buuuuuut Davido 1 - Burna 0 when it comes to Popcaan collabs. It’s not bad, just not risky enough.

I see what you did there

I’m realizing that i like “science” so much because it feels like a sequel to “anybody,” forever my fav burna song

didnt really enjoy this, maybe being too hard on it, but it kinda just sloshed around for me. loved the big acoustic guitar ballad thing though

He clearly went for feeling and a less expansive sound. It's all very pleasant and competent but he struggles to bring new things. For an afrobeats album it's very good, for a Burna Boy album it's lacking. By little at first, quite severely after. I may like 'Jagele' best, without being really impressed.

it's not as strong as african giant but again, it's a big improvement over twice as tall

nice & breezy, hope he scores some crossover hits from this, as he's clearly aiming for

somehow making guest appearances on afrobeats singles does wonders for sheeran, "for my hand" here and fireboy dml's "peru" are the best he's ever sounded

very much agree. Sheeran is unbearable to me most times (smug, uninspired but oh so highly effective stuff like “Bad Habits” can feel like the Worst Music Ever on a bad day), but the first thing I liked of his was “Shape Of You”, in the shape of its Legendury Beatz (afropop) remix.
part of it is smart marketing I’m sure, but he clearly loves African pop: he joined Fuse ODG in Twi on his “Boa Me” single in 2017 and also did a highlife-inspired track with him on his own album. he also had an official amapiano remix of “Bad Habits” (!) made by Kooldrink (of Tyla’s “Getting Late” fame). and yes, his feature on “Peru” is my favourite thing he ever did.

“Last Last” is shaping up to be Burna’s biggest hit btw, it’s currently at 12 in the UK and is doing well in several European countries, but also in places like New Zealand and Canada. the fact that it’s the biggest song in South Africa is also quite exceptional.

def one of the best songs on the project

i like this fine, its... pleasant. but im not finding it particularly dynamic. i think i like twice as tall more but prob too early to declare.

common person is the one i keep going back to, quite moving

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0SREUni2V8

Joey Akan is pretty harsh

That guy is such a weird & bad writer

I will say that piece and pitchfork's both correctly identify Cloak & Dagger as a highlight

And I generally agree with the first half >> second half narrative of both reviews. I called this "extremely smooth" upthread but I think what I should have said was "extremely mellow," so these takes aren't very surprising. The album could use a bigger dose of the biting menace you get in Kilometre

Pitchfork classifies it under… Rap?? what now??

anyway, that review (the P’fork one) is generally on point

Yeah agreed, the concluding paragraph is a v good summation, though the MLK handwringing is a bit much--not that that's a good line lol, but "extracting associative value" is silly in light of 6 decades of misuse & abuse of that speech

yeah the first run of songs (before the non-j hus guests start showing up) is pretty flawless imo, but i haven't been returning to the second half beyond "common person," "vanilla," and the blxst/kehlani collab

agree that the first half is stronger & more interesting, but idk the only dud is the khalid track

here’s a Nigerian review that makes more sense than the Joey Akan one - although I don’t agree with some of the song assessments.

meanwhile, it’s “Vanilla” that gets a video besides the Ed Sheeran collabo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNYl4ZCZDAI

It's pretty subtle but does the album mix of Kilometre sounds different to anyone else? Not just different but a little better/more banging if my ears can be trusted

Yeah, I noticed it at once. Not sure if it needed it, but there’s more going on in the mix for sure.

more Burna chart stats - I know you love ‘em:

“Last Last” enters the Billboard Hot 100 at #86, his first US hit. it’s now #7 in the UK, where “For My Hand” debuts at #30 - making it the first amapiano-ish(-ish) track to go top 40, I think?

Love, Damini enters the UK (and Dutch) album charts at #2, and the Billboard 200 Albums at #14, highest peaks for an afropop/afrobeats album ever (for comparison, Made in Lagos debuted at #15 in the UK and #80 in the US (and #28 for the Deluxe Edition when “Essence” was blowing up)

listening to the album again today after a couple of days hiatus: first half remains very strong, of the second-half collabos I still like the J Balvin one, but turns out “Solid” ain’t bad either. the others tho… nah.

"common person" too ordinary? "vanilla" too...you know?

I was talking about the songs with features specifically. the rest of the second half is also weaker than the first, but “Common Person” in
particular stood out much more for me this time

“Wild Dreams” is more like a tame impala tho

xp ah missed the word "collabos" in there

icymi, Last Last has been riddim-ized in JA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y36Bg8wvPg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yugwBn8doVk

Gotta love Skilli's minimalism. Bay-be.

new song, “Alone”, from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever thingy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8qGmBtXZV8

it’s growing on me

Burna x Balvin, “Rollercoaster”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyVVGW-5ITw

sounds like a rehash of “Anybody”/“Gbona”-era Burna, aimed primarily (or even exclusively) at the global market. not sure the song is all that strong tho.

it would have fit fine on the last album, it's pleasant but nothing special

sounding great on talibans - https://open.spotify.com/album/4EouhaKTJkW8xRpLsCz7va?si=dCzd-LIOR5mXGfiFg7K9TA

^otm

his new single "Big 7" is so much fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GATRApPww8

new album out 8/25

hell yeah

if this means there's a RZA beat on the album...oh man

yeah “big 7” is great … one of the best things from him in recent memory

i really love this song... "ghetto gospel preacher / two time community service breacher" is a great line

i can't quite put my finger on it but this feels like it harkens back to 'outside' era to me in that it's sorta this sui generis version of pop-rap that has clear west african/american/carribean influences but feels slightly unmoored from any specific region or genre, all the influences are baked in and not easily separable. it's kinda like he's just floating above the globe, absorbing sounds and then spitting out a song where everything feels seamlessly woven together (forgive my metaphor mixing). great record. i feel like i got burned a bit by the last album, which i really wanted to like (and which had a great lead single), but this song has me optimistic