Consumer Guide Album

Etran de l'Air: Agadez [Sahel Sounds, 2022]
Not at all slick but definitely more professional, clean-edged where one charm of their 2018 debut was how unkempt it was, the default up-and-comers of Agadez guitar generate a lot more drive this time around. Their Tuareg loyalty to an Azawad that exists primarily in their aspirations seems more presentational than activist at this moment in a crammed historical juncture with less and less room for that aspiration. But keeping the faith is a proven way to keep the music that arose with it alive. A-