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Feb 8, 2017Elwan (Elephants), perhaps their most powerful album since Amassakoul, confronts their situation head-on, in songs musing on the values of ancestry, unity and fellowship, driven by the infectiously hypnotic cyclical guitar grooves that wind like creepers around their poetic imagery.
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Feb 3, 2017If ever a record sounded like a herd of elephants, this is it.
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Feb 28, 2017Elwan is pure rock n’ roll. There is an undeniable swagger and an unfettered attitude of resistance here; no pretension or theater.
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Feb 21, 2017While Elwan may not herald any grand stylistic breakthrough, it does manage to synthesize some of the group’s most recent experiments in a way that helps distinguish it within their overall catalog.
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Feb 28, 2017Higher-end production values and a handful of famous rock guests have little impact upon their fundamental sound, which is a swirl of unfurling guitar lines, massed voices, and clip-clopping percussion. Elwan is not a soundtrack for defeat, but perseverance.
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Feb 21, 2017Whilst they dream of a home that can no longer be found, there is some comfort to be found here in the new family they are building around them with the power of their music.
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Feb 10, 2017Tinariwen once again deliver a vital and engaging album.
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Feb 8, 2017By making the geographically distant feel welcomingly familiar, Tinariwen have made Elwan a can't-miss release for curious audiences from all corners of the globe.
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Feb 6, 2017Tinariwen’s call-and-response vocals roll inexorably, entrancingly along. They are still the champions of the genre they created.
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Q MagazineFeb 3, 2017However much they conjure up campfire laments, you're rarely more than a few minutes from kick-ass riffs and percussive abandon. [Mar 2017, p.115]
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UncutFeb 3, 2017It's the haunted croak of the band's main singers, Ibrahim and Abdallah, that are the main draw: the sound of heartbroken gangleader, the world-weary soldier, bravado replaced by tenderness. It's a sound that suits them perfectly. [Mar 2017, p.22]
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MojoFeb 3, 2017If nothing else, this yearning, realpolitik-infused road movie of an album is one to point to the next time somebody pronounces there are no decent protest songs any more. [Mar 2017, p.92]
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Feb 23, 2017Their last studio record saw them in upbeat, energetic form, and whilst that playfulness is still present at times on Elwan, there is a conscious grounding too this time around.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 25 out of 30
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Mixed: 3 out of 30
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Negative: 2 out of 30
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Feb 14, 2017
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May 16, 2017
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Apr 9, 2017