Rating: NNNN
I just got an e-mail from my soul, cc’ed to my heart. It wrote me to say thank you and to express how fulfilled and nourished it feels now that I’ve played Zap Mama’s fifth album for it. There was a whole paragraph just about Marie Daulne, the group’s Zaire-born lead singer, and about how heart-rending her Pygmy onomatopoeic voice can be, how it sounds like a woodwind instrument that can form words. My soul also wrote a whole bit on the production, describing how organically it meshes with the all-female quintet’s pan-African neo-soul sound. There was even a 300-word postscript that noted how brightly Talib, Common and Erykah shine in their seamless guest appearances. Now I play the CD often, if only to let my soul know I still care.