Souad Massi – Zagate (Backingtrack Production, 2026)
Algerian-born singer-songwriter Souad Massi has never strayed far from her Algerian Chaâbi folk roots, while creatively incorporating Western sounds. Highly anticipated after the success of Sequana (2022), her ninth album, Zagate, further pushes her experimental envelope while continuing to offer what she does best.
The lead single “Samt” typifies Massi’s mature style with a hypnotic beat, poly-rhythmic percussion, and a chanting chorus, supporting her soaring, sliding, expressive voice. It features piercing solos by Sylvain Barou on zurna, an oboe-like instrument.
Massi is also at home in more coffee-shop arrangements, as heard on “Tiri (Fly Away)”, a delicate finger-picked ballad with a melancholy message: “Oh sun what’s the use of coming up/When I walk alongside the darkness” (translated from French).
Massi wrote or co-wrote all the songs, and her lyrics show her sensitive introspection and her bold political orientation. On “D’ici, de là Bas” (“From Here, From There”), Massi trades Arabic singing with guest Gaël Faye’s French rapping to explore the prejudice suffered by immigrants. Massi has never shied away from politics and continues to be courageous musically. The instrumental “L’Equation #1” is a loose meditation performed mostly on the viola d’amore played by Jasser Haj Youssef. Including it is a daring choice.
Although she has experimented with rock sounds in the past (“Twam” on her last album, for example), distorted electric guitars and crunchy riffs are more prominent on this outing. Zagate is produced by Justin Adams, who also plays guitar on most tracks, and has worked with Brian Eno and Robert Plant. He must take the credit (or the blame, depending on your point of view) for the four-on-the-floor sound of several of the tracks.
A full-on rocker, “Ana Inssam”, with a classic-rock chord progression, Western harmonies, and an electric guitar solo, is also a fantastic song. It demonstrates Massi’s strengths as a songwriter and as a singer. On Zagate, her many musical gifts are on full display, as well as her eagerness to take chances with her successful formula.
Buy Zagate.
Author: John Alan Urquhart
