African Connection
Queens & Kings

At times I find myself wondering how come some albums find themselves into my letterbox. Like this album by this band called African Connection, a band of Danes, guys from Ghana and America who are inspired Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti – it doesn’t quite fit our profile of rock and metal but I am not really that locked and when I have started work on an album I review it no matter if it fits the webzine profile or not. And it is always amusing to get some change from time to time, to write about albums that don’t always fit the bill. Queens & Kings is the debut album by this African Connection and it could probably be described as Afrobeat or something like that.

Musically it can be described as built on African beats and rhythms but also with elements of funk and of rock’n’roll quite a variety of influences can be heard on this album. Quite a varied album I think, with pretty good production and sound, it is quite a catchy album in my view. The Ghanaian members do the vocals in the native tongue and that works quite well I think. And I think that the album sounds quite fresh, but of course I have to admit that I am not very well versed in this kind of music so I might be a tad wrong there but it is a well made production so it will most likely work anyway.

I like this album; it works well in most regards with good songs and everything. And I think that the best songs are the fourth and the fifth where I especially enjoy the fifth track called Babanato, it is a very enjoyable track. Perhaps it gets a little drearier towards the end and the last pair of songs could I do without as they are not that exciting. Then again, you can always skip the final two songs and focus on the stuff you enjoy and that makes this album quite playable to me, I like it. And I think that it could have a rather wide appeal and be an album that does rather well from a commercial standpoint, but I am writing about a genre that I am not overly familiar with so I might be a bit off the mark. What is sure is that it is good.

It might not really fall into the frame of what we usually review for this publication, but it is worth checking out. I think that it might actually appeal to some of you who read our stuff, and I myself find it to be a rather appealing album as well. It is definitely an album that can be worth checking out.

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