Hermione Hoby 

The Very Best: MTMTMK – review

The Very Best pursue a clubbier direction on their second album, cashing in what once made them unique, writes Hermione Hoby
  
  


One of the pleasures of the Very Best's debut, 2009's Warm Heart of Africa, was that it sounded little like anything else at the time: Esau Mwamwaya's collaboration with Radioclit produced an irresistibly inclusive album of European pop with kwaito and highlife. Their second still bears that warmth and immediacy – the simple ebullience of Kondaine is a highlight ("We're walking on water/We're walking on air"), as is the dense and swirling Bantu featuring Amadou & Mariam – but the decision to supercharge so many tracks with clubbier beats – in other words, to make them sound a lot more like the rest of the charts – is disappointing.

 

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