CD of the week: Amadou & Mariam: Welcome to Mali

It would be reductive to say 2008 was Africa's year. Africa is vast and full of contrasts, one entity only in the mind of Sarah Palin. But as 2008 ends with a half-Kenyan guy taking the White House, it began with a sensational album by preppy Afrobeat fans Vampire Weekend. Suddenly, in musical circles, Africa was hip. Never mind that Björk's world music album, Volta, came out last year, and that Amadou & Mariam's European breakthrough record, Dimanche à Bamako, was released in 2005. This year ...

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