Angelique Kidjo - Djin Djin (CD)

All Music Guide

Coming full circle, Angelique Kidjo returns to her Beninese roots for the starstudded Djin Djin album, whose title, which loosely translates as seize the day, aptly sums up the set and its themes.

Djin kicks off with the bright and breezy "Ae Ae", just the type of irrepressible pop/worldwithoutborders number that regularly takes all of Europe by storm, booming out of clubs from Iceland to Ibiza. So infectious, that even though the lyrics are in Spanish (I think), the entire continent joins in regardless, although few will grasp its serious message of the economic distress driving Africans onto European shores.

Slightly more sophisticated, but equally irresistible is "Papa", an urban club monstertobe whose blistering rhythms vie with Kidjo's belted out vocals, all wrapped in a supple arrangement that beautifully blends funk, soul, Afrobeat and more. And then there's the funky, carnival styled cover of the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter, which almost seems to celebrate rape and murder.

Kidjo's anger is more evident on "Senamou", featuring old friends Amadou and Mariam, a song themed around the upper crust's blingshackled life, and whose universal truths are reflected in an arrangement that combines, African, middle Eastern, funk and rock elements. Carlos Santana's elegant guitar illuminates "Pearls", while Kidjo and Josh Groban valiantly try to give weight to Sade's bathos bathed lyrics.

Much better are the haunting title track, featuring Alicia Keys and Branford Marsali, the smoldering "Salala", which twins the singer with Peter Gabriel, and the Afroreggae "Salala", where she's joined by Ziggy Marley.

"Arouna" also has a reggae tinge around its Arabesque arrangement, and celebrates individuality on a crowded planet. "Emma", in contrast, explores isolation, and does it with a country twang, a styling that also infects the bouncier "Mama Golo Papa".

With the final track, "Lonlon", Kidjo completes the journey, across an inspired vocal version of Ravel's "Bolero", a piece that itself broadly hinted at the ties between north and south, east and west, connections made even clearer here.