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Album reviews Music

K’naan – More Beautiful Than Silence EP

Rating: NN


The voice that opens K’naan’s new EP isn’t the rapper’s own rangy flow but a reedy, super-polished Nelly Furtado (on Is Anybody Out There?). Not the worst thing – Furtado always exudes geniality – but an indicator, it seems, of a contributor-reliant direction for the Torontonian who found mass global success with 2009 single Wavin’ Flag.

More Beautiful Than Silence is a glossy sampling of K’naan’s post-Troubador work. It relies heavily on ambiguous world music tropes, highly melodic, canned inspirational hooks and arena-style arranging. (See the Coldplay sample on Better.) It’s not that the five tracks here are bad K’naan is still an adept storyteller. It’s that they’ve been scrubbed clean of humanity. Even Nas’s breathy gristle – his edge – has been swiped from the collaborative Nothing To Lose, leaving the disc’s most rap-sounding song disappointingly weightless. Manufactured poignancy kinda contradicts the K’naan vibe that celebrates the human spirit.

Top track: Nothing To Lose, featuring Nas

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