Tinariwen - Elwan
Critic Score
Based on 16 reviews
2017 Ratings: #143 / 940
User Score
Based on 104 ratings
2017 Rank: #314
Liked by 4 people
February 10, 2017 / Release Date
LP / Format
- / Label
Tishoumaren / Genre
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Independent

Elwan (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.

90
The Line of Best Fit
Tinariwen are the real deal, and they can accomplish a massive anti-establishment feel sans huge guitar solos.
82
Pitchfork

Once again, all their music is crisply played, and smartly sequenced. Yet while 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.

80
Drowned in Sound

On their latest record, Elwan, this band of recently-outlawed musicians sound as immediate as ever, bursting with ideas and musical themes that throw influences from blues, folk, rock and their local tishoumaren into an irresistible melting pot.

80
AllMusic
Exiles, explorers, and seekers of inner truth, Tinariwen once again deliver a vital and engaging album.
80
Exclaim!

By 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.

80
Uncut

It’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.

60
musicOMH

Their 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.

etzharai
75

Tuareg blues music goes wild 🇩🇿🇲🇱

Gaspurga87
90

Con este album descubrí a esta interesante formacion. Me decepcionaron bastante con su posterior disco, "Amadjar". Aquí si que lograron hacer muy buenas composiciones.

DukesAtmosphere
85

As a child growing up in war torn Mali of the 1960’s, master guitar player Ibrahim Ag Alhabib built his very first guitar using nothing more than a tin can, stick and bicycle wire. By age 19 he had migrated to Algeria and in 1979 assembled the players who were to become Tinariwen (meaning “deserts”), ultimately returning to Mali following a cease-fire over a decade later. Seven albums, one Grammy and some 40 odd years since their initial formation Tinariwen are back with ... read more

etzharai
75

Tuareg blues music goes wild 🇩🇿🇲🇱

Gaspurga87
90

Con este album descubrí a esta interesante formacion. Me decepcionaron bastante con su posterior disco, "Amadjar". Aquí si que lograron hacer muy buenas composiciones.

DukesAtmosphere
85

As a child growing up in war torn Mali of the 1960’s, master guitar player Ibrahim Ag Alhabib built his very first guitar using nothing more than a tin can, stick and bicycle wire. By age 19 he had migrated to Algeria and in 1979 assembled the players who were to become Tinariwen (meaning “deserts”), ultimately returning to Mali following a cease-fire over a decade later. Seven albums, one Grammy and some 40 odd years since their initial formation Tinariwen are back with ... read more

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Added on: October 19, 2016