Customer Reviews

Nothing's In Vain

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When you read the reviews of this album on this website, you realize how, despite the cachet of "world music," nothing has really changed. Youssou is criticized for not being "African" enough. For using "cheesy" string arrangements (remember what people said about Parker with strings?) In fact, this is beautiful music. If you understand the lyrics (sorry, non-Francophone or non-Arabic white consumers), you realize that this is legitimate, heartfelt African music. No one says that in contrast with the romantic garbage puryveyed and hyped by American musicians, this is music that is both wonderful to hear and difficult to understand. Perhaps, in a hundred years, Western listeners will be able to appreciate what non-Westerners have to say, without labeling them as not non-Western enough for their "exotic" sensibilities, not anti-Romatic enough to satisfy their appetite for cynicsm. If Euro-American art has been absorbing African influences for a century or more, why shouldn't African artists absorb Western influences? Whites would shudder in horror if Youssou or some other African recorded happy Como Christmas songs. It would disturb their ideas of black suffering, of which they have become conoisseurs. Buy this album and enjoy it if you have a brain in your head. If you don't, I feel sorry for you.

An amazing album. N'dours ability to craft wonderfully melodious and pulsatingly rythmic music transcends language. N'dour wrote songs on this album that are addictive, almost singable (despite being written in senegalese). In fact, this album makes you want to learn the dialect so you can sing along with Youssou. Until you do, you will annoy those around you by humming to the melody and making african sounding interjections to more familiar choruses.
Unlike most of N'dours other work, this album WILL NOT FRUSTRATE YOU WITH AN OVERPRODUCED POP SOUND. Gone is Peter Gabriel's authenticity-ruining touch. Thank god someone sat Youssou down and told him that he was ruining his beautiful music in the studio. Aside from two songs where Youssou succombs to the misguided advice of producers, he created a beautiful, exotic, but highly listenable album. My favorite album of the last few years and the one I have gotten most excited about in a long time. Buy it.

Yet another very solid release from Youssou, who's blessed with a kind-of-high-pitched voice, that still sounds very smooth. A very distinctive voice that's difficult to forget once you've heard him.

The album has a great adult contemporary pop songs. It definitely has the very Peter Gabriel-world feel meets modern France-production. It's difficult to describe his records because they combine a whole lot of genres together. Even though it's not in English, it's still very catchy and very accessible to the casual listener.

I love the atmosphere that this record creates; it feels very heartfelt. "Nothing's In Vain" is a good place to expand your musical horizons.

Lovers of pure musical beauty, don't take the negative critics seriously. Have they, or can they, ever created such lush melody? I doubt it. Youssou has given us the most gorgeous releases; I have yet to listen to one that deserves a negative comment about his incorporation of Western influences. Insisting on only traditional instruments and arrangements is an attempt to control and enslave an artist to the critics' own idea of what the artist should be like. About as absurd as saying jazz fusion stinks. Listen over and over - this is musical perfection pure beauty!

Fans of Youssou N'Dour get in the queue for this one! This Senegalese singer from Dakar has consistently produced quality entertaining albums featuring the m'balax style, each one different, and each seeming better than the last - just how far can this man go? Recorded in Paris and New York with a fine set of musicians playing kora, xalam (lute), riti (fiddle), balafon, flute, guitars, keyboards and all manner of percussion, with a little programming thrown in, this is an album oozing with spirituality and humanity all at once. Consistent themes are hope, love and respect for fellow man, and the variety of uncluttered acoustic and electric arrangements are thoughtfully and masterfully refined to support the contemplative and emotional nature of the music. One of the highlights (if there are any, it's all so consistently absorbing) is "So Many Men", a more commercially-styled duet with Pascal Obispo, reminiscent of his "7 Seconds" of 1994. It is a poignant cry for freedom which will likely become another signature tune for him. Overall, not as rootsy as much of his previous material, but at face value this is a smooth and beautiful production to be appreciated with awe and wonder.

I didn't know anything about this artist before I purchased "Nothing's In Vain", buying it on a caprice, but I found this album to be one of the most enchanting things I have listened to in many years. The melodies are sweet, the modulations of N'Dour's voice hypnotically interesting - and quite varied throughout the course of the album. The Nonesuch CD booklet has all the lyrics in the original and in translation, and this gives a good sense of N'Dour's subjects. A good deal of the album is love songs. A good deal is philosophical or social - and even the love songs tend in that direction. I would recommend "Nothing's In Vain" to anyone who loves music. Youssou N'Dour would seem to me to be an artist to rank with Joan Armatrading, Van Morrison and other true artists, whose work might not be appreciated all at once by everyone, but will shine through over time. Buy this!

NOTHING'S IN VAIN  is again a reaction in the opposite direction, focusing on traditional roots and including a lovely balafon cut, vocals, and hot beats. It's obvious N'Dour returned to his roots for inspiration and came back with an album which surpasses many or most of his prior publications.

If one were to purchase only one Youssou album, this is it, "Joko" following closely in second. N'Dour's voice is to the ears as honey is to the tongue. This is the album to begin one's introduction to a continent of underappreciated genius. N'Dour captures the grace that is Africa without parallel. You cannot go wrong with this album. God has revealed himself to me in the form of a diminutive Senegalese Muslim . . .

For the first time (at least insofar as his international releases are concerned), Youssou N'Dour appears to have assembled traditional Senegalese musicians on balafon, kora, xalam, wooden flute and other acoustic instruments, combining their support with the chattering guitars and the talking-drum and sabar percussion of his usual high-energy "Super Etoile" band in surprising ways. This is all a winning backdrop for one of the world's - not just Africa's - greatest voices. Running through it all, N'Dour's melodies in this album are among the most supple and affecting of his career. We have with this record a more intimate portrait than ever before of a world-class singer (Christgau says he's the world's best pop singer of all!) who is gracefully assuming a mantle of maturity. This album is brilliant.

Youssou N'Dour has crafted a beautiful album of stirring melodies from a palette of West African musical colours. His voice is amongst Africa's most memorable - in any language. This CD is extraordinary and worthwhile!