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Album Details

• Artist: Various Artists
• Album: Global Soul
• Label: Putumayo
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-07-19

Here's something that really hasn't been done yet; world beat flavored soul music. That's exactly what Putumayo has attempted with Global Soul. It's an interesting possibility unfortunately it's probably one of the weakest of Putumayo's recent output. They have putting out quality world music for such a long time that it's about time they had a failure. I guess that it's not fair of me to say that this is a complete failure because some people may really enjoy the smooth soul styles involved. It's just that I can't really stand soul music at the best of times, even fused with world cultures. A couple of tracks that stand out from the pack are Doc Gyneco's smooth "Caramel" (he is from France). Another interesting concoction is Cameroon's Kaissa doing a track called "Nika Pata Lambo". And of course, my favorite track is from last year's amazing 1 Giant Leap project featuring Speech and Neneh Cherry. It's a track called "Braided Hair" and it alone is worth the price of admission. Here's a simple test, if you like soul or R&B music then you will most definitely dig Global Soul. If you don't, you might find enough world infusions into the music that you might actually get some enjoyment out of Global Soul.

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