In the five years since 2018's Deran, Tuareg singer/guitarist Bombino became the first artist from Niger to earn a Grammy nomination. He followed it with the 2020 concert album Live in Amsterdam, further emphasizing the West's fascination with his music. The admiration is mutual; Bombino's fiery desert blues approach takes plenty of cues from rock & roll. On Sahel, his emotional seventh album, he deepens this amalgam with deeply personal songs, recorded in Casablanca by Welsh producer David Wrench (Frank Ocean, Goldfrapp). Named for the wide and diverse belt of land spanning the width of North Africa, Sahel is an album of extremes with scintillating rockers and hypnotic guitar work sharing the stage with stripped-down acoustic ballads. Bombino is also more outspoken here, rallying for unity among the Tuareg people on the vivid, psych-influenced "Aitma." Amid the more rousing and motivational songs, he laments loss in myriad ways: loss of freedom, loss of culture, lost loves. Over the quiet lope of acoustic guitar and finger snaps, Bombino sounds brokenhearted on the moody "Ayo Nigla," which, along with the similarly toned closer "Mes Amis," expresses unrequited love. Like the region of its namesake, Sahel contains multitudes. It is complex, cathartic, celebratory, and at times sad, but always burning with the spark of Bombino's innate talent. © Timothy Monger /TiVo

Her label originally suggested an album of covers, but Ayo has too many personal things to express to accept such an offer. Perhaps relics of this original idea, three pre-existing songs are nevertheless present on the track list of this fifth album from the German-Nigerian singer: Né quelque part by Maxime Le Forestier, Throw It Away by Abbey Lincoln and Fool’s Gold by the late Lhasa. The artist who made a name for herself in 2007 with her hit Down On My Knees casts aside the folk guitar that she seemed so inseparable from previously, in order to focus on her voice, which is lit up by Freddy Koella’s stripped back arrangements. Ayo transports her clear vocals and warm interpretations to the core these infinitely delicate songs (Rest Assured, with its hesitant piano), tender and sensitive (Fix Me Up and its bluesy guitars), but also sometimes groovy (Afro Blue, which only features a cymbal and a pizzicato double bass). Among some other gems of the album are some slower retro tracks (Just Like I Can’t) and a surprising piece which blends rhythmic reggae and nostalgic jazz (I’m in Love). At the crossroads between soul and folk, Ayo’s graceful, sensitive and intimate melodies make you glad she chose to offer up some original tracks. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

Her label originally suggested an album of covers, but Ayo has too many personal things to express to accept such an offer. Perhaps relics of this original idea, three pre-existing songs are nevertheless present on the track list of this fifth album from the German-Nigerian singer: Né quelque part by Maxime Le Forestier, Throw It Away by Abbey Lincoln and Fool’s Gold by the late Lhasa. The artist who made a name for herself in 2007 with her hit Down On My Knees casts aside the folk guitar that she seemed so inseparable from previously, in order to focus on her voice, which is lit up by Freddy Koella’s stripped back arrangements. Ayo transports her clear vocals and warm interpretations to the core these infinitely delicate songs (Rest Assured, with its hesitant piano), tender and sensitive (Fix Me Up and its bluesy guitars), but also sometimes groovy (Afro Blue, which only features a cymbal and a pizzicato double bass). Among some other gems of the album are some slower retro tracks (Just Like I Can’t) and a surprising piece which blends rhythmic reggae and nostalgic jazz (I’m in Love). At the crossroads between soul and folk, Ayo’s graceful, sensitive and intimate melodies make you glad she chose to offer up some original tracks. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

Maryland-born, multi-platinum rapper Logic's 2020 retirement from music was short-lived to say the least, as his would-be final album No Pressure was quickly followed by more new mixtapes and studio albums before even a full 12 months passed. College Park continues the technical flexing Logic displayed on its immediate predecessor, Vinyl Days, but fixates on nostalgia with both its production and lyrical themes. Musically, Logic ventures back the stoned, jazzy instrumentals and mellow production of golden-era '90s hip-hop, with relaxed horn samples and gentle grooves backdropping lucid flows on "Clone Wars III" and a smiling guitar loop, soulful backup singers, and flute runs on "Village Slum" (the title itself an obvious homage to the influence of Detroit's finest late-'90s rap group, Slum Village). This vibrant and nostalgic production defines the majority of the album, moving more towards pop on the catchy weed ode "Highlife" and opting for sharp funk and hooks sung by special guest Norah Jones on "Paradise II." While Logic's lyrics move between remembering his days making songs in his basement and accessing how far he's come, College Park plays out like a docudrama on the rapper's early days, with dramatized skits between songs set in 2011, when Logic and his friends were just getting their start in music and playing their first shows. The overall feel of the album is warm and feel-good, as Logic strolls through the past and considers how it took him to where he is now, as RZA, Bun B, Juicy J, Lucy Rose, Redman, and others stop by to join in on the fun and reminiscing.© TiVo Staff /TiVo

It's hard to believe that almost a decade passed in between studio albums for someone as ubiquitous as Jason Derulo. Between 2015's Everything Is 4 and 2024's Nu King, the pop star released a slew of well-received singles and collaborations that kept him busy on the charts and social media, but teased full-lengths with titles like 777 and 2Sides never appeared, as it was revealed that he had left his label. So when Nu King arrived, there was clearly a lot of ground to cover, resulting in over two dozen tracks that more than make up for lost time. Reaching back as far as 2017, Derulo was sure to include his biggest hits from the almost-decade: platinum smashes such as "Swalla" with Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign, "Tip Toe" with French Montana, "Savage Love" with Jawsh 685, "Take You Dancing," "Love Not War" with Nuka, "Acapulco," and "Jalebi Baby" with Tesher are all here, giving his 2016 Platinum Hits set a run for its money. The guest list balloons with Michael Buble, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Gucci Mane, Quavo, Adam Levine, Dido, David Guetta, Meghan Trainor, and more, lending an already eye-popping collection even more punch. Of the songs that weren't released in the years prior, the best of the bunch sound like sleek, synth-funk variations on the Weeknd's contemporary output; on the other hand, the more forgettable fare -- it's hard to stand out when surrounded by so much competition! -- reminds listeners of much-better R&B-flavored 2020s K-pop. Overall, it's understandable that Derulo had to play catch-up by putting so much onto one release, but Nu King might have packed a more direct punch with some editing and artistic focus. Regardless, he's a master of the dancefloor and can keep a party going, which is likely enough for longtime fans.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

Following a hit record is always tough. Bomba Estereo's 2015 Sony debut Amanecer landed on the Latin Albums and World Music charts, netted two smash singles in "Soy Yo" and the remix of "Fiesta" featuring Will Smith, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album. Rather than try to replicate that success, Bomba make a left turn on Ayo. The album embraces the technological possibility of the dancefloor dominance of Amanecer, but nods back to the adventurous musical and songwriting aesthetics of 2012's Elegancia Tropical, all while moving forward. The songs offer an album-length look at personal empowerment that embraces the totality of human experience, from pain to pleasure, from living in community to solitude, from anger to joy. It also looks deeply at nature and its cycles, and how it informs our lives. This is all accomplished by utilizing and mixing and matching musical styles from champeta and reggaeton to cumbia, reggae, and hip-hop. Multi-instrumentalist Meija is a wizard of arrangement and textures.Opener "Siembra" offers backmasked, dreamy, psychedelic electronic pop before rumbling tambura drums and analog synths usher in a glorious folk-like melody and poignant lyrics as a sweeping anthem to personal empowerment and responsibility; a chorus of children's voices and the use of the gaita underscore them: "Sow the sun in the morning/The road that calls you/Screaming at you from within/And that shows where to go/Loose/What is no longer in your time/What you no longer own/What you were waiting for...." "Quimca (Dance with Me)" features Balkan Beatbox in a club groover, but its minimal production, crunchy loops, and the stinging guitars behind Liliana Saumet's half-sung/half-rapped lyrics are especially striking. "Duele" is a sultry cumbia about rejection and heartbreak; its use of flauta de millo as an illustration of vulnerability amid off-kilter synths in minor-key modes opens a space for Saumet to emote her pain cleanly above the mix. In "Internacionales," champeta, cumbia, and Afro-funk rub up against one another on the dancefloor as Saumet delivers a lyric that urges us to embrace experiences physical, spiritual, and emotional. Its psychedelic bridge offers space and lushness as the melody turns in and then breaks free. "Flower Power" turns the misogyny in reggaeton on its head; Saumet calls on women to refuse objectification militantly: "It's time to scream, start singing/And stop saying 'I'm sorry'...I will flourish and not disappear...." It gives way to the full of reggae of "Taganga," a love song whose lyric poetry equates the protagonist as a descendent of the sun, the sand, and the sea. Closer "Vuelve" revisits elements of "Siembre" in out, dreamy, psychedelic dubby form with looped flutes and soaring violin. Ayo puts Bomba Estereo's depth on display, not only musically, but lyrically, technologically, and aesthetically. This is an album simultaneously created for the dancehall of the human heart as well as the body.© Thom Jurek /TiVo