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Youssou N'Dour
7 Seconds: The Best of Youssou N'Dour
(Columbia/Legacy)
First Appeared at The Music Box, May 2004, Volume 11, #5
Written by John Metzger
As leader of Super Etoile de Dakar, vocalist Youssou N’Dour pioneered the
mbalax style, which blends traditional Senegalese and Afro-Caribbean rhythms and
places them within a pop music context. As luck would have it, his rise in
popularity in the West occurred just as Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon were
looking for something new and different to spring upon their fans, and N’Dour’s
unique creation provided the answer. Though he added percussion throughout
Simon’s Graceland, it was his soaring vocals on Gabriel’s hit single In Your Eyes that thrust him into the spotlight and secured him a headlining
slot on the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! tour in 1988.
Commercially speaking, N’Dour has had a remarkably accomplished career,
considering he’s a world music performer who typically sings in his native Wolof
tongue. His success largely has been predicated on the fact that, much like Bob
Marley and Peter Tosh, he’s found ways of merging the sounds of his homeland
with Western styles, employing jazz, R&B, and pop as a means for making his
songs both exotic and accessible. Likewise, his lyrics run the gamut from
universal tales of love to socio-political commentaries, and each is delivered
with his distinctively emotive and sinuous vocal expressions.
Although the recently released 7 Seconds: The Best of Youssou N’Dour
might not be the most comprehensive collection of N’Dour’s material, it does
offer an insightful glimpse of an artist trying to find some balance between the
disparate forces that have impacted the past twelve years of his career. There
are moments — such as his duet with Neneh Cherry on the relatively
straightforward R&B ballad 7 Seconds as well as the drab, keyboard-heavy
Without a Smile, which falls flat despite the fluttering flights of
saxophonist Branford Marsalis — when he’s tried too hard to fit within the
framework of Western culture. On the other hand, his most stunning
accomplishments have come on tracks like New Africa and Set when
he’s simply allowed his voice to fly freely over burbling, percussive grooves
that poke and prod his songs to a percolating frenzy. Also of interest is
N’Dour’s spirited reworking of The Beatles’ Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; the
gentle, acoustic No More; and ebullient Oh Boy. Over the course of
its 16 tracks, however, 7 Seconds: The Best of Youssou N’Dour winds up
falling prey to the same problems that have plagued his other outings. That is:
it’s extraordinarily frustrating to hear the power of N’Dour’s music shine
brightly on some tunes, only to witness him homogenize the rest for wider
appeal. 
7 Seconds: The Best of Youssou N'Dour is available
from Amazon.com. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2004
The Music Box
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