Immigrés

The sound of being at a late-night backyard party illuminated by string lights on a hot summer night with a glass bottle in your hand. Really fun, and has no bloat at all.

Not the type of music i would usually listen, but i loved it. The production is really good, all the drums sound fantastic and the vocals are wonderful.

“Immigrés” by Youssou N’Dour (1988) Gipsy Kings, meet Bob Marley. The West African country Senegal is the grand exception to the dictum “The worst thing you can be is a former French colony”. And Senegal is perhaps is the world’s best hope for an exemplary and peaceable Mohammedan nation. Out of Senegal comes N’Dour (one of Paul Simon’s collaborators on his album “Graceland” [1986–percussion on “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”]—Simon may have “appropriated” African musicians, but it sure didn’t hurt their subsequent careers). N’Dour is an able vocalist who has assembled a sizable team of performers in this rhythmic treat. This is your horizon-expanding opportunity to enlarge the musical palate. The lyrics to the opening song “Immigrés” playfully give sage advice to those who are contesting a disputed election: Have a cookie and get over it. I laughed out loud. However, I was unable find any other lyrics online (too bad—they are in Wolof, I believe, and are essential for seriously assessing this work), but the real substance of this album is the colorful and exciting instrumental work, especially percussion. The four tracks are multidimensional, well-composed, evocative, and extended. Sorry, I had to give up on “Taaw”—I could never find the groove. Play this as background music while you work, and you’ll not only be efficient, but you’ll also be eager to wrap your arms around a world of music. Who could ask for more on a Monday morning? 3/5

This album is awesome. The songs were long but never got boring. Consistently fun throughout.

I quite like world music, so I enjoyed this one.

THIS IS AWESOME

sacré bleu!

Decent world music, interesting to hear once but that's it

Oh, this is wonderful. Joyful, richly arranged, musically gorgeous songs. Youssou N'Dour has really found the sweet spot where traditional Senegalese sounds blend perfectly with hints of Western pop, funk and jazz. The synths are actually pretty restrained and balanced for that era, so I don't know why anyone would single them out for criticism. Overall, this is really splendid. Fave Songs (All songs, from most to least favorite): Taaw, Badou, Immigrés/Bitim Rew, Pitche Mi

Really liked this! Don't have much to say, it was groovy. 9

Fun rhythms, fun melodies and instrumentals. This is such interesting, moving music!

Very pleasant listen. As with much African music, I can't quite put my finger on what I do and don't like.

Great experience getting some exposure to Senegal, but I still find it absurd to randomly throw in world content into a list of popular genres.

Really good music. This is the type of s*** that I want when I started listening to a list of albums like this.

Im a fan of juju music and I am surprised that King Sunny Ade didn't make this list. However, this album certainly rivals his best work. Great record. Amazing voice and great instrumentation.

Brilliant, of course. 5 stars.

Awesome sound. I loved it; my cats loved it.

Almost halfway through the list, and the "Other" origin is consistently rated higher than "UK" and "US". A bit surprising to me, but especially the picks from Africa have been excellent, and Immigrés from legend Youssou N'Dour is no exception. A perfect blend of percussion, bass and synth.

The African entries on this list are mostly top class. This album by the former Senegalese minister of tourism is no exception.

went absolutely crazy on this one. excellent instrumentals, catchy riffs and infectious rhythms. excellent excellent work

Big beautiful groove

I was not familiar with this particular album, but I really love Youssou N'Dour, so this particular assignment came as a "heck yes!" for me. As mentioned in a prior review, it's a bit hard to rate albums that aren't in English because I can't compare songwriting when I don't understand the lyrics. But dang, I love the SOUND of this album. The drums are amazing, the layers of guitar and brass, the sound of the vocals. Just wonderful. Wikipedia tells me that this album was criticized for the use of synthesizers? I like the synth sounds! So there you go. Love it. 5/5

Great world drumming album!

Fun, upbeat, different to what I would usually listen to. Honestly thoroughly enjoyed listening to this short album.

Awesome album

Joyous. I saw him on Peter Gabriel’s “So”tour in 1986. Became a huge fan. This is a great album!

Loved it, magical stuff.

Very pleasant listening. Unfortunate that it was storming today as this should be listened to in the back yard at a barbecue.

No. 292/1001 Immigrès/Bitim Rew 3/5 Pitche Mi 3/5 Taaw 4/5 Badou 3/5 Average: 3,25 Not my absolute favorite, but this was a fun and interesting listen.

Could use more Paul Simon.

Really interesting to hear Senegalese music. Throughly enjoyed it to begin with but couldn't listen for too long

Nice change. Can feel the 80's in this one.

Not something I would usually listen to, but pretty good. Good musicianship.

Instrumental is nice but the vocals are not my type.

Nice enough vibe but I don’t really enjoy his tone.

2.5 | No me terminó de convencer. Aprecio que esté bien hecho y que su calidad de compositor y mezcla con ritmos es correcta. De hecho hasta humor tenía para algo tipo Afro Beat, pero no me terminó de cuajar. Si lo comparo con algo como Fela Kuti siento que al menos en este disco Fela gana de calle facilmente. Quizá es la instrumentación, se termina escuchando con las partes electrónicas medio... apagadas? No estoy seguro pero simplemente fue un disco que vino, se fue y no encendió mucho en mí, aunque se escucha tecnicamente correcto. Para ser tantos ritmos africanos algo le falta de caracter.

This is straight up Senegalese music. Lots of percussion/African band sound. 4/10.

trust me, this is not an album you need to hear before you die.

Radio gazelle

Really enjoying the vibe and groove of this

Love, love, love. I forst discovered Youssou N'Dour in the 80's. I always considered him the "Bob Marley" of African music. His voice, the music is all just an amazing marriage of beautiful sound.

I love the interplay between strings, percussion and voice here, with twists and turns around every corner!

Beautiful and vibrant!!

there is absolutely no significance to whatever the random generator throws at me, so me getting a rly great record for my day 100 milestone isnt crazy, but it being my first easy First Listen 5/5 of the entire project does feel a lil extraordinary. ive been listening a lot lately to the black saint and the sinner lady, an absolutely unhinged musical accomplishment that combines a wide variety of disciplines into something that feels so effortlessly singular yet also in conversation with so many strands of history. i am far less familiar with the styles and cultures being mixed here, but even after just one listen it feels comparably vibrant and unstoppable, channeling the most color and complexity possible into pure gut-level dance and emotion. the feelings sliders are thrown way towards joyousness, togetherness, and healing. i have no idea how u even start to make music like this. i should explore a lot more west african pop whenever i feel the mental capacity for such a task

Loved this album. Have no idea what he’s singing about. But that really helps to emphasize how great the music and melodies are.

4.5/5

Can't get fresher than this

This album took me by surprise. I knew the voice thanks to Peter Gabriel. Blown away by this album and instantly became a favorite

This is the stuff. Never heard of Youssou and probably never would have without the album generator. This is why I'm here. Pitche Mi is standout for me. Nice separation of instruments, lots of good grooves. Just exactly perfect for an early Sunday morning.

As good as World Music gets.

Can tell from the first 10 seconds that I’m going to enjoy this. The sound mixing is wonderful. Really balanced. Loving this.

Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer and bandleader. His strong, soaring voice is the central feature of these upbeat, rhythmic tracks. He was featured in a Peter Gabriel song, "In Your Eyes," which catapulted N'Dour to international fame. Touring with Gabriel gave N'Dour a chance to perform world-wide. Immigres is an album N'Dour released just before becoming a star, and is a good sample of the music N'Dour made relatively early in his career. These are infectious, danceable songs with universal appeal.

Muhkeaa soittoa

Didn’t know what was being sung but it really doesn’t matter. This album has great energy and has a little of everything instrumental wise and at a high level.

Outrageous! What a record! Absolute education in how to blend 4000 musical genres and make them all harmonise perfectly! Completely took me by surprise! 4.7

N'Dour takes the jazzy relaxed open feel of 70s West African Golden-era of Afro-Cuban rumba (from his Star Band de Dakar days) and opens it up. This album lowers the role of the guitar and makes space to incorporate more Senegalese musical traditions (the interwoven griot-style vocals, the wide range of hand drums and the talking drum) and for some smooth jazz sounding horns/keyboards. The horns are great, but the keys, combined with the very 80s production and the bass tone in particular, do give this a very corny dated feel. Along with Salif Keita's, N'Dour is one of the cornerstones of the whole Putomayo world music 'genre' and forged a sound that would become the somewhat stultifying generic default for West African musicians seeking an international audience, combining glossy global sheen with the authenticating use of local instruments. But here in its nascent stage, there's plenty of energy and excitement to the music, and even the corny keyboard sounds have an endearing nostalgic wistfulness to them.

Jeg lå og vippede mellem en 4'er og en 5'er, for jeg ved ikke, hvor ofte den vil komme på i fremtiden, men jeg blev simpelthen i for godt humør til at rate den andet. Fantastisk instrumentation, interessant stemme, rigtigt sommeralbum

Just amazing. Put this on right as I headed out to walk the dog, and what a great listen on a nice breezy 63 degree (F) morning!

Really fun sound. I had never heard this before, but I love this kind of thing. Great party music.

This was super sweet. I loved it. Awesome vocals and I loved the rhythms and guitar work. Cool stuff

I know nothing about this at all but saw on Spotify that this dude was on "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel and that's how the larger world population found out about him. I can get quite into African music because it's so different to so much else, and I am enjoying this from the first chords. This rules. It's catchy while still being strange and meandering.

Joyous! Superb voice, superb rhythm. Been watching the AFCON 2024 and the crazy scenes, so this feels timely. sadly for Youssou, Senegal got knocked out. My awareness of him extends basically to 7 Seconds, so this was lovely to hear his earlier, more traditional work. Although I understand it was criticised for using synths. Well they aren't intrusive to my ear. I guess when they come in halfway through Taaw they arguably take away more than add to the rhythm, but otherwise. This is just a delight, uplifting and fantastic from start to finish. Obviously I haven't a scooby what he's singing about, which is a shame, as from what I can work out he's a sound geezer. I didn't want Badou to end, 5 minutes wasn't enough!

Enjoyed all of this album very much, had never heard it in full before. No wonder western musicians were queuing up to collaborate! Will certainly be listening again. I can't think of anything I'd change so in the absence of 9 out of 10 I've rounded up. 5 stars from husband, too.

Beautiful music

This was great! I loved every moment.

Beautiful album from the former minister of tourism for Senegal

Joyful, catchy and easily a relisten

Familiar funkiness with some greatly influential African twist. You can see N'Dour's fingerprints across so much, and that's a good thing.

This was a great listen. This was perfect to have on while I'm doing what needs to be done. Lots of very subtle percussion in the background gave the tracks some extra depth.

Loved it. I really want to go to Senegal in the meantime I'll listen to big Youssou.

Wow, this viscerally takes me back to my childhood. Sub 10 - maybe 6 or 7? My very first media device of any description, that was mine rather than the family's, was a crystal radio kit. You pushed the components into a perforated cardboard circuit board, wired them up, connected a wire to a radiator to act as an antenna, and listened through a little ear piece that looked like an old fashioned hearing aid. It had no power source of its own, and seemed like magic to me! It was not capable of picking up too many radio stations, but one thing it reliably picked up quite strongly was a show playing world music that sounded a lot like this. Probably the first music that _I_ sought out for myself, rather than was just passively exposed to. Fave track - "Immigrés/Bitim Rew" I guess, but the whole album is lovely....

Че за кайфарик

What an incredible tenor

I only could find a version with 4 very long songs on it, not sure if that is the full album. The music is great, very talented musicians coming together to make a medley of satisfying rhythms. I can’t understand the language but the vocals do help push the music through and I felt that I could understand the songs even though I couldn’t, if that makes sense. Main complaint is that the songs are extremely repetative in that the same vocals and instrumentals are basically played on a loop for nearly 7 minutes per song where they could have been 2 minute songs. Overall solid world music album that I always love to have pop up on this list. 7/10

really chill and different thanks for putting me onto this.

How much was David Byrne influenced by this? Soooooooo much.

Previously unknown to me and will be getting a few more listens. I’ve never quite connected with Youssou in the some way as I have with other seminal African artists of his era (Toumani etc), but this has set me on a path of discovery and made me keen to dig deeper. Brought some welcome warmth on a cold and wintry morning

This is an example of the great surprises that this web experience can give me. I think I would have otherwise never crossed paths with this artist.

This is what I'm here for! Good album, not at all the sort of thing I have heard before, and definitely a keeper. 4/5

Interesting to listen too, unsure when id listen again but glad I've been exposed to this

Pretty good, fun, upbeat songs. I loved the percussion.

World music is my least favorite genre on this challenge, but I found this enjoyable and uplifting. 3.5 stars.

Pretty great actually. 3.5/5

If you listen to it as a whole it's a good time. Great to hang or to go out and party. If you listen to the individual musicians it's pure insanity. Its like every member of this band randomly picked a song in a different time signature and just started playing and some miracle they all end up starting and stopping at the same time. It's incredible to listen to. Probably one of the most competent musicians I've heard on this list. Seems like the actual music is a little basic but they clearly know how to play.

I really enjoyed this. Awesome percussion and really interesting melodies.

Canny this. Had a few listens now and it’s fast growing into a little gem for me. Some cracking little riffs scattered throughout, kinda reminds me of a party version of Tinariwen. Tres good

Quote enjoyed this, the rhythm and repetition scratched the math rock bit of my brain but it has a lot of melody too. All of the songs were a little bit different, had their own pace and interesting points. I could see myself listening to this again.

One of the best world music albums I've listened to, the opening track, and track 3 are wonderful odyssey's full of interesting rhythm and the usage of drums across the whole album pleases these percussionist's ears.

I’ve really enjoyed the African albums on this list so far, this one doesn’t disappoint. A bit mellower than say Fela Kuti - it nevertheless has great rhythms and beats.

first listen love the talking drums

Lovely and lively.

Very enjoyable and a delightful change from the usual offerings, but then again I've rather recently come across other music which would be so haplessly filed under "World" and which made me realize, again, that this here just isn't a Best Of Anything. So, not a 5.

hahahaha i got this right after ELP, and the difference couldn't be much more stark. joy + art vs. musical masturbation.

Never heard anything like this before. Cool tribal vibes. An all around. Good listen

Good stuff!

I admit to not being very familiar with African music, so in no place to comment how good it is artistically. What I can say is that I enjoyed it. 4/5

I enjoyed this a lot. I like Youssou N'Dour's voice. The music was infectious. And the whole album is short and sweet, and doesn't outstay its welcome

Really liked this album. Went on to listen to his other stuff and I liked that too. Only thing is, kind of more an EP. 4 songs doesn't feel like a full album.

Helt jätte kiva album, fantastiska biisin med otroligt bra viba

It was interesting to see the mixture of traditional African music with more modern influences. Pitche Mi had some fun trumpets and the emotion in the vocals was really nice. I didn't understand but I could feel the love, sadness and emotions. I wanted to be at the party in Immigres and Badou made me want to live a simple life at the beach.