Lqalb Lmeskun is easily the worst of the three Jil Jilala albums I've sampled lately - it's not terrible, but it's making me realize that gnawa is a genre that can be kinda' boring when it's not gobsmackingly amazing.

Soukous, on the other hand, is pretty much never not amazing, or at least one of the most inherently appealing genres I know of, and Orchestra le Peup's Tia Tibi Tia Yala is no exception: the third track, in particular, has some exquisite horn bits. 

About a third of In the Heights gives me that thrill that can only come from a damn good showtune - spliced with hip hop and salsa, to boot. But there's just a few too many, uh, modern-showtune-sounding showtunes - a little too Rent, y'know? But when those aforementioned influences come to the fore, it's fucking ecstatic! The first third in particular is just great, great music. Too bad about the adult contemporary shit.

Returning to Bodega Pop, the Hoàng Oanh comp really hits a sweet spot sometimes - a few tracks go on too long, but I'm coming to realize that I'm nearly as big of a sucker for vocals in Vietnamese as I am for those in Thai, my favorite language to hear people sing in, and honestly they sound very similar to me. The later tracks tend to be my favorite, particularly the ones tinged with psych rock and the tango one.

Remember what I just said about Thai? My reaction to Rock Khong Khoi's Sieow Woi is a perfect example of just how much I love the language and music of that country - it's synth-pop, but it's not really synth-pop, dig? It's pop music that happens to use synths, and fairly cheap sounding ones at that, but the melodies and rhythms seem much older and more traditional than that and it sounds like a picnic on a beautiful spring day with your best friends in the world. There's not a thing I would change and yet it doesn't seem exceptional in any way except quality - it's gorgeous and endlessly listenable.

But hooooooooooooooooooly fuck, if that album is a breezy day in the park, Chinnakon Klong Yao by Chinnakon Krailat starts off like a tornado made of orgasms - it's more traditional in instrumentation, and the Western elements are more, uh, Bing Crosby than Stock, Aitken and Waterman, but when Chinnakon yodels it's like an explosion of rainbows in your very soul. If every track was like the first two, it would be on the shortlist for five stars on a second listen.

But now we're back to the synthetic stuff with a Phimpha Phonsiri album and ugh I'm still just beyond smitten with this entire country's music - well, the "Entro (sic) to Thai Pop" playlist I've been perusing on Spotify shows that there's tons of completely uncharming generic Westernized pop blah coming from the country nowadays, but molam and luk thung are, and this is almost impossible to believe, possibly even more rewarding than Sublime Frequencies comps had led me to believe.

Moving from Thailand to Cote d'Ivoire, Zagazougou's Zagazougou Coup is mostly percussion, vox and accordion, but who needs more than that? 

 Bozi Boziana & L'Orchestre Anti-Choc use more than that on Bana Saint-Gabriel but it's not nearly as charming - it's thoroughly modern African music in very nearly the most pejorative sense of "modern." There's enough soukous influence on a few tracks that it's not a total wash but s'not for me, let's leave it at that.

On the "and now for something completely different" tip, T.E.F.'s Symptomatic Harbinger is some of the most enjoyable noise I've encountered in a while, though it seems weirdly masochistic to refer to music that gave me a headache and ear pain "enjoyable."

Returning to Africa, the Beat of Smanje Manje comp is some nice mostly instrumental jive from an important South African label, though it does get tiring right before the end. There's also an appearance by Mahlathini, who everyone should know. 

Synthesizers in African music aren't always bad news: ask City Boys Band, whose "Obiara te se onoa" opens the Kwae Anoma album with some sweet vintage analog synthwork - too bad that the music is kind of nondescript otherwise, with the keys, be they synth or organ, being the highlight. Highlife, it seems, isn't as sure a thing as soukous. 

Back to Zagazougou: le Confirmation is actually more enjoyable than the aforementioned, even if they share different versions of multiple songs. 

Sri Krug Brass' Banleng Sri Krung is pretty much kitsch, but it's good kitsch and it's Thai kitsch so it's got some elements that really transcend its kitschiness.