Dobet Ghanore: Couleur

The personal life of singer-songwriter Dobet Gnahoré can be seen as a journey back to its source, which started in her native Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), wound and lingered through an adopted homeland (France), and then returned, in part to reconnect with family and creative spirits, to the Ivory Coast.

Gnahoré's musical life has been a journey, too. Her band Ano Neko received a Best Newcomer nomination at the 2006 World Music Awards for its recorded debut. "Pearls," her collaboration with w/American singer-songwriter India Arie, claimed the Best Urban/Alternative Performance GRAMMY Award for 2010.

Gnahoré stuffs Couleur, her sixth full-length recording, full to its bursting seams with supercharged dancefloor sounds and shades. You hear in the opening "Désert" how the connected, collective spirit of African music—with very few solo parts, but each part locking into the others—influenced 1980s/1990s American and European dance/club music, especially through artists such as Grace Jones. "Désert" sounds simpler than it is, with an edgy spirit of ferocity, pride and defiance.

Even so, Gnahoré the songwriter rarely seems to challenge Gnahoré the singer on Couleur. Its production polish seems to turn to impenetrable steel on some pieces ("Zaliguéhi," "Mon Époque"), leaving the singer little more to do than toast and rap in staccato.

Songs that allow for something different prove refreshing. In "Jalouse," her double-tracked harmonized vocal shines sunny and warm, providing cover for music that seems to blossom under and around it; when her voice floats and lingers in her upper register, it leaves traces of Sade like melancholy clouds behind.

"Rédemption" sounds written more for listening than for dancing, with a flute melody and violin counterpoint/response to the lead vocal. Its tick-tock ending rocks the music to sleep like a baby in the warm comfort and security of its mother's arms, a beautiful incongruity.

The multi-cultured, multicolored "Woman" is Couleur's crowning glory, pumping out a dancefloor rhythm as strong, mysterious, sleek, sensuous and beautiful as the woman it sings about. It's uniquely Afro-Euro-disco, which also turns into a great way to describe the diva Dobet Gnahoré.

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