With his 2023 release Work of Art, Nigerian vocalist Asake set a high-water mark for albums in the impressive recent wave of west African pop, his serenely lilting top lines underpinned with the deep and dynamic Afro-house style of amapiano. While his follow-up isn’t as consistently strong, it’s more versatile, going on a trip across the Black diaspora that he has enchanted to arena-filling success.
He sometimes uses his considerable charisma to paper over songwriting cracks: there really isn’t much of a melody to Skating or the pulsating synthwave of Uhh Yeahh, atmospheric though they are. But the album is otherwise tuneful and rich with compositional detail: improvised flute, saxophone and muted trumpet frequently float across the backdrops, gorgeously human against the drum programming and penetrating amapiano bass stabs.
Asake’s earnest voice rises and falls on the columns of heat issuing off these songs, and is paired with series of A-list guests. Wizkid helps to open the album’s interestingly sedate opening third with the almost soporifically relaxing MMS, while Stormzy brings his brand of spiritual thanksgiving to Suru. As the album climbs through the gears, it’s absolutely joyous to hear Travis Scott and Central Cee each rolling relentlessly over Afrocentric rhythms, and best of all is Whine, a Caribbean dancehall track performed alongside Afro-Brazilian foil Ludmilla, lyrics morphing from English to Yoruba and Portuguese: a carnival-worthy celebration of the Black Atlantic.
