THE WORLD'S BEST NEW MUSIC
ALBUM OF THE DAY
16 MARCH 2026
Zagate
SOUAD MASSI
Released 6 March 2026
Sony / BackingTrack Productions
****-
From one of North Africa’s most eloquent voices, a bolder, more urgent chapter in which folk's intimacy meets rock's energy, as poetry underpins a resolute act of resistance.
Emerging from Algiers in the late 1990s, Souad Massi forged a style that blended Algerian folk traditions, chaâbi and raï with the songwriting ethos of Western folk icons such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Her early albums like Raoui (2001), Deb (2003) established her as one of the Maghreb’s most recognisable voices - a songwriter whose quiet, acoustic intimacy carried themes of exile, identity and resilience that, and more than two decades, placed her in a singular place in Algerian music.
Often described as the “bitter-sweet voice of exile”, Massi has spent much of her career bridging the cultural space between Algeria and Europe, singing in Arabic and French while reconciling Mediterranean musical traditions with contemporary folk and rock.
With Zagate, Massi pushes her sound further outward than on most of her previous records. Produced once again by guitarist Justin Adams, who also helmed her award-winning 2022 album Sequana, the album introduces a more muscular sonic palette while retaining the lyrical sensitivity that has defined her work.
Where earlier albums often centred acoustic guitar and folk restraint, Zagate explores a broader range of textures: the Afrobeat-lite groove of “Samt”, the rock-driven urgency of “Ana Inssan”, Saharan-tinged folk in “D’ici, de là-bas”, and the bluesy Parisian swing of “Chibani”.
The lyrical focus is more confrontational than ever before. The title itself echoes the phrase “ça se gâte”, “things are getting worse”, and the songs grapple with war, racism, migration and the unsettling turbulence of the contemporary world.
Collaborations widen the album’s reach: appearances from rappers Youssoupha and Gaël Faye introduce spoken-word urgency, while players such as John Baggott (keyboards, Massive Attack) and Billy Fuller (drums, Sensational Shape Shifters, Beak) deepen the groove.
The result is perhaps Massi’s most liberated album to date; still tender, still poetic, but newly sharpened by anger, courage and a refusal to look away from the world’s fractures.
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