Big Blue Ball

Love it! Great variety of world music, seasoned with enough Peter Gabriel to fully satisfy. Love the way the Middle Eastern, Slavic and African influences are interwoven. It may have taken 17 or 18 years to finish, but it was worth it!

"Whole Thing" was being played in some store. I recognized Peter Gabriel and thought that the song was great, so I bought the album. Never imagined the whole album would be so good! I guess the "Big Blue Ball" is planet Earth, and great music is what comes out of it. Papa Wemba vocals and flamenco guitar, Sinead O'Connor and Chinese percussion, a Madagascan rapper, the ethereal "altus silva" (perhaps my favorite) with guitar synths and Papa Wemba's band. Absolutely original world music, out of this world!

A friend of mine who writes for Filter magazine sent me a link a few months ago to an article talking about the upcoming release of this album. It sounded interesting, but I wasn't sure I would pick it up right away. My own experiences with world music have been hit and miss.

On a whim, however, I went ahead and ordered it. Man oh man, am I ever glad I did. What a phenomenal album. I'm just finishing up my first full listen from start to finish, and it's been an incredible audible journey. Even after the first listen, I think it's already been elevated to my list of top 15 albums. Maybe even top 10. Highly recommend picking this one up!

Sometimes when you wait a while for something............ it struggles to meet your expectations, this PG CD exceeds with only a few cuts to skip past.

Most refreshing CD/album I've heard since The Decemberists "The Crane Wife". Sounds great played LOUD on good headphones!! Older artists shine on!! Hooray!