Rasha is a young Sudanese woman singer based in Spain and surrounded by European players so
Let Me Be is far more an exercise in emigre Europop than strictly Sudanese roots. Nothing wrong with that -- it's as vital and valid a life and musical experience to draw from as any other potentially but the music written by saxophone/keyboardist/producer Francisco Javier "Patxi" Pascual doesn't give her much to work with. Her lyrics mostly focus on longing for the Sudan and for women to be free to pursue their lives as they want, delivered in
Rasha's very light, airy voice. She's not a belter and real power arrangements would swamp her singing so "Afta'h Albab" has a reggae filtered through rai feel and "Blue Sudan Blues" leans more to the blues side than the Sudanese. "Ummi" is the first overtly traditional track but the desert blues with ney sounds closer to the West African Sahara than Sudanese pop that often has a healthy R&B sax quotient that's missing here. Which is a bit surprising since Pascual leaves plenty of room for his sax fills in the arrangements. But "Tumadir" winds up sounding like lukewarm
Aster Aweke, "Najmeen" and "My Girl" go in for nondescript uptempo loping with sax and keyboard fills and "Ash'ab" has a lot of flamenco-ish touches from a prominent acoustic guitar. The very Europop-oriented "Entre Dos Mares" is sung in Spanish and "Your Bloody Kingdom" in English places pretty mainstream pop on top of its rai-like throb.
Let Me Be isn't a disc geared towards trailblazing or being strictly roots authentic -- the pop element in the equation clearly dominates and that's fine. The problem is that it's overly polished, tepid pop that seems to trade on the "exotica" of
Rasha's roots for the European market. ~ Don Snowden