Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Franco



I heard this article on NPR before Christmas, which began with the following statement:

I love 21st-century music. Lil Wayne, Drive-By Truckers and TV on the Radio are all in my Top 10 albums of 2008. But I'm convinced that the very best music newly released in America in 2008 was recorded in Kinshasa, Congo (formerly known as Zaire), three and four decades ago by a man named Franco, the late king of Congolese rumba.

So of course I had to order it, and I can't say I disagree. See what you think.

2 comments:

Mike said...

"Very best music of 2008?" I don't think I can agree with that, but sounding like music from the 1940s, with the recorded-in-a-jungle-hut-on-a-tape-recorder vibe, there's just not much to compare it to. I'm glad to have heard it, but I honestly don't think there's anything here that surpasses the best music of '08. But I'm delighted that you ordered it!

Jay said...

Thanks, Andy.