King Sunny Ade: The Best Of The Classic Years : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Intricate but light, polyrhythmic but clear, Nigerian juju is the great sly seducer of African pop, and nobody puts the moves on better than King Sunny Ade. When Island Records failed to make the sweet-toned singer and his killer band into an international phenomenon in the early 1980s, he slowly recast himself as an earthy grandmaster with less phosphor fire in his still-beguiling music. But the classic years excerpted here are from the start of his career, 1967-74 -- leaner, louder tunes almost impossible to find until now. Ade's backup band lacked the depth and authority it had by the late Seventies, but the guitars never had such fierce sparkle as on "Sunny Ti De," and the loping, dublike style he pioneered on "Synchro System" never sounded fresher or more prophetic. Check out this very regal hidden chamber of juju.

MILO MILES
(From RS 918, March 20, 2003)