Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

I already feel bad putting the incredible Merriweather Post Pavilion in second place, after all it has been almost uniformly recognized as the album of the year. It's gotten perfect reviews from every publication in existence, and it's featured in the top two or three of every major countdown, yet, it appears to be the ugly step sister when it comes to countdowns, always finishing second. Only Pitchfork put this album in it's rightful place atop the end of year polls, and despite knowing that pound for pound that Merriweather Post Pavilion is clearly this year's greatest album I just can't give it the top spot. There's something about this record, beneath all it's brilliance, it's mighty grooves and it's incredible hooks it just doesn't quite connect to you on the personal level. It's magical, captivating and inspiring but it's not the type of album that you can truly call you're favourite, it doesn't quite make that bond. Now this may seem like a shallow reason to deny Merriweather Post Pavillion it's rightful place but it is the truth, and it's the albums only flaw, it's an album that amazes, that astounds but perhaps for those reasons I can't love it in the way a true number one should be loved.

When you first listen to Merriweather Post Pavilion you soon realize that something very special is going on, In The Flowers opens the album, and you're immediately overwhelmed by a senses of the aquatic, this album has a great liquidity, it has a natural flow, a pitter patter to it, the LP feels organic, natural and constantly beautiful. The album shimmers, like a secluded lake you've stumbled upon in the middle of the night, it leaves you transfixed as you watch the moon light dance and flicker on the lake's ever changing surfaces. Now this may sound overly grand but this is an album of rich sound, grand imagery and widescreen ideals. Of course the tranquil beauty gives way to incredible booming captivating beats, as you're thrown from you hazy hallucination by the cry of Avey Tare. "If I Could Just Leave My Body For The Night" is the dream on album opener In The Flowers and it perfectly encapsulates the entire album, this is an album that yearns for something more, something beautiful, something peaceful, an out of body experience and by the end of Merriweather Post Pavilion that wish has been thoroughly fulfilled. This mind warping opening is followed by one of the decade's greatest singles in the form of My Girls, a song whose sound is so inspiring, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, you'll no longer care for materiel things as long as music this heavenly continues to play, and of course it does only going from strength to strength.

The world in the 21st Century has become microscopic, for better or worse globalisation has touched almost every corner of this earth and the internet has brought us closer together with the people of the world than we could ever have dreamed possible just fifteen years ago. The musical world has shrunk even faster, while even multicultural London may not have incorporated the influence of Africa beyond the odd themed restaurant, in music sounds and ideas have clashed together and merged seamlessly to create inspiring and almost incomprehensible new sounds that have left even the most well versed music critic lost for words. Now African music, particularly the relentless tribal drum rhythms of west Africa have been thoroughly incorperated into western music, bolstering the sound of trail blazers Diplo and M.I.A and more recently adding some hypnotic beats to our brilliant number two the Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion. However, this has been very much a one way process, the West has incorporated sounds from across the world and created great works, but what makes Warm Heart Of Africa so special is the fact that the process is flipped on it's head. Radioclit took all there western influences and took them straight to the heart of Malawi and created an album where UK and US beats are subservient to tribal chants, ethereal classical African choruses and of course those stomping irresistible drum beats.

The whole experience is thoroughly thrilling, they don't stop with just bringing some production nouse and some slicker than slick beats, The Very Best Of even took Ezra Koenig from the Vampire Weekend and transported him to the middle of Africa, the result was mind blowing, the album's title track somehow managed to surpass even the finest Vampire Weekend track. It's at this point, three tracks in, when you realize just what makes Warm Heart Of Africa the album of the year, it's not it's technical nouse, it's creative brilliance or it's beautiful harmonies, it's simply the feel good factor, this is an album that plasters a smile across you're face, every inch of this album is uplifting. Africa is a continent so often associated with tragedy, it feels positively inspiring to see all it's creativity, all it's cultural, and all it's artistry on display to be celebrated. It doesn't play second fiddle, this isn't a mild drum beat hidden under a million different production effects, this is the real sound of Africa. Nsokoto is the perfect example, I of course cannot understand a word of the track, but the pulsating rhythm, the sparse drums and the gorgeously layered vocals just transport you, you feel like you're there, your head is filled with imagery, not of starving children, but of smiling faces, beautiful scenery and the world's most insane dance moves.

In many ways this is the natural successor to Graceland, to many Western ears we never got to hear these gorgeous beats and these unique song structures except on Paul Simon's career defining work. This however is not the sanitised version, this is the real deal, this is Africa, and as you listen to the sweet melodies and the epic natural sweeps of Angonde you come to realize that they are just as good, if not better, than anything the once in a life time talent Paul Simon could create. Warm Heart Of Africa though is more than just a celebration of traditional Africa, of small villages and tribes, this is a thoroughly contemporary album, just listen to the buzzsaw crunch of Julia where Radioclit really come into their own, creating a monstrous blaring rave riff for Esau Mwamwaya gorgeous vocal to ride atop. Around the half way point the album begins to evolve, both sonically and spiritually, you feel that you're been taken on a magical mystery tour of Africa, no longer confined to Malawi, this is a grand tour, incorporating sea side villages, great plains, and underground night clubs in grimey towns, they are throwing everything at you. The electronic beats really start to stack up on the imposing Ntende Uli only to be countered by the organic Rain Dance, of course instead of Western bleeps Rain Dance is boosted by the care free swagger of M.I.A. By the time we reach the albums highlight the cooling feel good majesty of Kamphopo you realize that while Merriweather Post Pavilion may be the best album of the year if not the decade, it can't make you feel the way Warm Heart Of Africa does, this is a one of statement, it's an all encompassing cultural masterwork, whose album title hit the nail squarely on the head, there is no doubt about it, The Very Best Of have given us the Warm Heart Of Africa in all it's glory.