7 Seconds: The Best Of Youssou N'Dour
Youssou N'Dour has two sides to his career. There's the hard-driving mbalax style that he created by fusing calypso, Latin and pop to traditional Senegalese music. Then there's the (some would say overproduced) world-beat pop that recalls the later work of Peter Gabriel. Falling into the latter category,7 Secondsis a 16-track collection that draws from two Columbia albums from the early 1990s and a French import of 2000 (Joko (From The Village To Town)) as well as two cuts from a 1994 live-for-radio recording. The most interesting tidbit, however, is N'Dour's near straight reading of the Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," which came out as Japanese-only single in 1996. The duet with Neneh Cherry on "7 Seconds" shows how good of Western pop singer N'Dour is, but he also does well on the soul classic "Don't Look Back," which features Wyclef Jean. This is definitely a strong argument for revaluating N'Dour's poppier material.--Tad Hendrickson