Consumer Guide Album

Youssou N'Dour: Mbalax [Universal Music Africa, 2021]
This isn't N'Dour's first, what shall we call it, nonphysical or maybe postphysical product--the excellent live Raxas Bercy 2017 was download-only, and there must be Senegal-onlys unknown to me that fit the bill because the man never stops. But it is his first album since he signed with Universal Music Africa, which has a licensing deal with Boomplay, the biggest streaming service in a market long undermined by bootleggers who might finally give up their life of crime should the mass of African listeners leave plastic behind and take to streaming. So for just that reason you can be sure N'Dour took the album seriously while acknowledging that (a) he always takes his music seriously, (b) at 62 his miraculous high baritone has yet to lose clarity or power, and (c) the tama-driven "Gagganti ko," the multilingual "Mama Africa," and the subdued "Ndox-L'eau" are a beginning designed to go somewhere. B+