Here, the title says it all: on this album, the guys from the group Le vent du nord simply sing tunes recorded over the last 20 years, but rearranged for piano and string quartet. The connection between classical and traditional music is done here with a stunning and convincing naturalness. On the piano, Philippe Prud’homme is on point even when he flirts with a more modern approach, the strings are poignant and subtly embrace centuries of Western music. Gorgeous.

Powered by the song Ghosts Again, Memento Mori is Depeche Mode’s greatest record since Playing the Angel or even Songs Of Faith

Simon 

We should not take Fatoumata Diawara at face value when she says that her music is blues. London Ko, like the Malian singer’s other records, sounds neither as if it came from Mississippi nor as if it followed the great Ali Farka Touré. She first talks about a state of mind which, here, telepathizes with Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) to create an album full of collaborations (Yemi Alade, M, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, etc.) full of groove, often joyfully funk and more pop than what Fatoumata Diawara has accustomed us to in the past. Her blues is actually a very warm color.

Not so long ago, at the turn of December, Karkwa proved on stage all the good things we already thought of Dans lasecond, his first album in ages. His best since… ever. Totally free from his past influences, in perfect mastery of his universe, with a mastery that we have always felt in these five musicians, but which had never been expressed in such a clear, effortless manner, Karkwa creates rock rooted that manages to sound new. At the same time, we perceive that the group no longer feels obliged to make rock… This return of Karkwa is not supposed to last. Now, if In the Second is the final point of his story, it will be its culminating point.