Seya, Oumou Sangare's first album in six years, received its North American release on Nonesuch this week. Entertainment Weekly gives an A to the latest from Mali's "Songbird."

"Oumou Sangare is to Malian pop what Aretha Franklin is to rock & roll, a supremely gifted singer who commands R-E-S-P-E-C-T," exclaims reviewer K. Leander Williams. Her new  album, says Williams, "finds her reimagining the sound of modern Africa yet again. The kamele n'goni, a bluesy regional harp, spars with dreamy electric guitars for prominence atop horns (former JBs Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis help out), backup singers, and grooves limpid enough to dive into."

You can read the full review at ew.com.

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New Jersey's Star-Ledger sees Seya as Sangare's "return to the forefront of contemporary, internationally aimed African music." Reviewer Martin Lipp writes: "Sangare has intricately crafted her latest with a sound that weaves traditional African and modern Western instruments. At times, the funk feels like the hypnotic rhythms pacing the dry heat of Mali; other times it leans toward juicier American R&B. Her husky alto is as strong and lithe as ever."

Oumou's longstanding lyrical call to right social wrongs in her home country continues on Seya, and, says Lipp, "she does it with a series of upbeat, well-produced songs." Essential to those songs is what comes from the "arresting voice" of this Malian songstress. Lipp writes:

Soaring above it all is Sangare's nimble and powerful voice. Her melodies are not the kind you walk away whistling, but they are something to marvel at. Not unlike slippery tongued rappers, she rat-a-tats her words, but in sharp contrast her vocal lines swoop, pivot and dive as artfully as a jazz saxophonist's.

Ultimately, the reviewer concludes, "At once ancient and progressive, Sangare's music taps a powerful tradition, updating it without diminishing its character."

Read the complete review at nj.com.