It’s European Artists On Genres You Wouldn’t Expect Day! First up, a French songwriter working in Afropop…
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Micha Cavaseno: Oh goodie, just what we needed. Woke Feist en française.
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Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa: Killer bassline/percussion combo, but it takes much more than name-dropping Mama Africa to score a true Afro-funk banger. For instance, it’s gotta take a hook that actually goes somewhere.
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Jessica Doyle: No points off for “appropriation,” because an American trying to get smug on depictions of French/pan-African cultural exchanges can only lead to trop de bêtises. (“But you still feel European, right?” a glossy French magazine asked recently. Jain replied that she’d been to Abu Dhabi a score of times before she’d ever seen London.) I don’t even feel comfortable dinging her for “sufferation”; with another artist I might call it creative and flexible, not clumsy. But we’re talking two platitude-ridden verses and an outro (which admittedly has a bit of spark to it) as the only variants against a two-line chorus, which could be about anybody. I don’t know what purpose this song serves. Is this supposed to convince the ignorant to seek out Miriam Makeba’s work? Is it meant for those already ready to celebrate her? If the latter, then why is it so vague?
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Katherine St Asaph: I own at least one Miriam Stockley record, so I’m in no position to carp about authenticity, cultural or otherwise. The intro is arresting; the rest is disappointingly static even as it boasts otherwise.
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Mark Sinker: I met Miriam Makeba once. She was tired and cross mid-tour, probably heartily sick of having to give endless interview to young and ignorant white journos like me — plus she’d sprained her ankle earlier in the day and it was swelled up and evidently hurt a lot. I’d kind of like to able to unleash that memorably daunting version of her on this affectless trespassing ninny, who no doubt means as well as I did.
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Juana Giaimo: “Makeba” is the kind of track in which the artist is so absorbed in their song that she completely forgets about the listener.
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Alfred Soto: No way does she sound a little behind the beat, not when the bass line walks through the paces of the Jacksons’ “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground).” She makes her body dance for y’all. Mine too.
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Thomas Inskeep: The way she synthesizes her source material and makes something new with it, is reminiscent of a French tune-yards. Dunno if an album of this would sustain, but it’s good for three-and-a-half minutes.
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