The tracks on this album are, in order:

Lalla
Kouma
Sikey
Ka Moun Kè
Melancolie
N’Téri
Tuit Tuit
Beautiful Africa
Sarama.

All can be found on YouTube, so if you persevere you can listen to them all, albeit in a piecemeal fashion.


I love West African music, especially that from Mali, and this album is no exception. For some reason Mali is especially blessed in producing some world-class musicians.

I first became aware of RokiaTraoré from her appearance on Jools Holland’s ‘Later’, and because of that investigate her back catalogue. Traoré’s earlier albums are more traditional sounding, using acoustic (un-amplified) instruments. In ‘Beautiful Africa’ Traoré is pursuing a more European up-tempo ‘rock’/pop sound. I’m not sure if it suits her, but remain content that it is her choice, and the results are still very, very listenable.

I’m not troubled with singers singing in their own language: the great majority of my ‘world music’ collection is in a foreign language, and even with Anglophone artists, their diction is often so poor that you can’t really hear the lyrics properly.

I would give this 9.5/10, but I can’t so 10/10 from me.