13th Floor New Song Of The Day: Songhoy Blues – Worry

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Here’s a cool way to start your Friday…it’s new music from Songhoy Blues.

The tune is Worry and it is taken from their upcoming third album, Keep Fighting Today. Here’s the record company blurb with more info:

Arguably one of the most successful and exciting bands to emerge from Africa in recent years, Songhoy Blues have today shared an exhilarating and inspiring new track, ‘Worry‘, on Transgressive Records.

Talking about the song, produced by Matt Sweeney who previously worked with the band on their Meet Me In The City EP last year, the band said:

“The harshness of life still weighs on our societies and sinks many young people into a dead end. Worry is a positive energy that Songhoy Blues want(s) to be a ray of hope for humanity. Worry is about not stopping fighting because at the very end you will find the light.”

The track is also accompanied by a fantastic performance filmed last month in Bamako by Malian director Fansé Sanogo, based on an original concept by the band.

Songhoy Blues were determined to release ‘Worry’ during these tumultuous times because the message it sends is both relevant and universal, and a beacon of hope to people struggling everywhere. It is also their first song entirely in English, but propelled by the Malian polyrhythms and potent blues riffs that set them apart from all other bands. On beat with the current times, the track is the first glimpse of their rockier, harder, hopeful third album. Keep Fighting Today, they extol. A determined treatise for a better life.

Songhoy Blues have travelled a long way, in every sense. Surely one of the greatest live bands on the planet, their dynamic and tenaciously unique style has enthralled audiences across the spectrum, bringing their musical culture to people across the globe.

First attracting the attention of Damon Albarn’s Africa Express and label Transgressive from their performance on the acclaimed Maison Des Jeunes record, the band went into the studio with Nick Zinner producing their debut LP, Music in Exile, beginning a touring cycle that soon took them from the 80 capacity Servants Jazz Quarters in Dalston to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage and the Royal Albert Hall. Their second album, Résistance, produced by Neil Comber (MIA, Gengahr), broadened the palette sonically and celebrated its diversity featuring the likes of Iggy Pop and Elf Kid.

Appearing in They Will Have To Kill Us First, an award-winning documentary film centred around the situation in Mali, acting as spokespersons for WaterAID, performing at the UN Climate Action Summit, forming a key part of The Imperial War Museum’s “Culture Under Attack”, performing a series-stealing show at the Nile Rodgers curated Meltdown Festival at London’s South Bank in 2019 and performing in the BBC’s “Noughts And Crosses” show, they are always working, campaigning and, bringing joy and pointing to salvation through their music.

The harder sound of the new record reflects their approach – tracked quickly in New York with producer, musician and legendary studio guitarist Matt Sweeney (Johnny Cash, Run The Jewels, Chavez, Bonnie Prince Billy), the album is a fearless beast. The band says it best in their own words (and song) ‘Badala’ – Songhoy for “We Don’t Give a Fuck”.

Marty Duda
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