Remain in Light

Released

If ever there was an example of an artist taking songs by the scruff of the neck and going “these are mine now,” it’s this glorious reinterpretation of an entire Talking Heads album by the Beninese-French diva Angélique Kidjo. The original was explicitly inspired by West African music, especially Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, but rather than take it back to its influences Kidjo and her collaborators – including Ezra Koenig, Dev “Blood Orange” Hynes and Tony Allen – pushed it forwards into the future. At first it’s hard to think how she could better the opening, Grace Jones-ish “Born Under Punches” – but the standard remains relentless throughout, and in fact as it opens out into the mellower, cosmic finale of “Seen and Not Seen,” “Listening Wind” and “The Overload,” the album ends even stronger than it began. An undeniable masterpiece.

Joe Muggs

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