WOYAYA

The first thing that striked me about the second studio effort by Osibisa is artwork, Roger Dean seems to be not able to do wrong regarding album artworks. It is a real delight to have the Repertoire Records version, it looks really great. Osibisa is listed on ProgArchives as a band from Ghana, this is only partially true, Teddy Osei, Mac Tontoh and Sol Amarfio are really from Ghana, but the other four musicians come from Nigeria, Grenada and Trinidad. But this is not a major mistake, and I have to be glad that I discovered this band via ProgArchives. The title of the opening track may refer to the number of band members, and to the number of tracks on this album. Beautiful Seven is indeed a beautiful track, great flutes, african rythms, a positive, joyful vibe, one of the signature songs of Osibisa. Y Sharp is also a fantastic track, irrestibly joyful, nice pllaying on trumpet, sax, and the rythms are again brilliant. Spirits up Above is an excellent Roland Kirk Cover, well, I have not heard the original, but this is very good.:-) After this the quality drops a little bit with the two following tracks, but not a lot. Honestly, I don't really like the intro of Survival. Fortunately, the band gets back on track and they finish the album with two fabulous tracks, Rabiatu features outstanding bass playing, and the title track is a wonderful ballad like peace, great to sing it along.:-) Overall, this is a very well played and written joyful album, with some minor flaws, a strong four star album for me.