Moctar, Mdou: Tears Of Injustice (indie shop edition/sky blue) LP

--- Out Feb 28, 2025 ---

If "Funeral For Justice" was the sound of outrage, this is the sound of grief. Mdou Moctar present "Tears Of Injustice", a complete re-recording, and rearranging (for acoustic and traditional instruments) of their previous album, "Funeral For Justice". It's an evolution of the band's critically adored breakout, and the meditative mirror-image to the blistering original. On "Funeral For Justice", anger at the plight of Niger and the Tuareg people is plainly expressed in the music's volume and velocity; on "Tears Of Injustice", the songs retain that weight sans amplification. They are steeped in sadness, conveying the grief of a nation locked into a constant churn of poverty, colonial exploitation, and political upheaval. It is Tuareg protest music in a raw and essential form. "When Mdou writes the lyrics, he typically writes them with an acoustic guitar. So you're getting closer to that original moment", says bass player Mikey Coltun. "It retains heaviness, but it's haunting".