British Ghanaian producer Juls conceived his third full-length album Peace and Love in two complementary parts: Peace is side A for slow-tempo songs, and Love for side B’s uptempo songs. Both sections are just as enjoyable when shuffled, in line with Juls’ signature cross-pollination of genres and guest features. Except for one beat-only track, “Mshingo,” on Peace and Love, the producer and DJ has marshaled more than 20 named features from the Black Atlantic pop-sphere, over 18 earworm-y tracks. A sonorous cowbell keeps time in “Saint Tropez” forming a rich percussive pairing with throbbing log drums, while Nigerian singer Victony is at once earnest and transactional when pleading for a lover to give him “the keys to your heaven” for which he is willing to “tear rubber band.” Both “Injabulo” (with South African singer Baby S.O.N) and “Bad Bad” (with British Ugandan singer tendai) consist of a build-up of drums, guitar, piano, and spoken word come-ons in Zulu and Spanish, respectively. In “Perspective,” over a steady beat chugging with drums, shakers, and a treated sample, Jamaican American singer Masego is accommodating of conflicting worldviews, while celebrating his version of it through the image of a Yoruba woman from Nigeria and Brazil with a fondness for a Black Atlantic diet of Ghanaian bean stew (red red), Brazilian fish stew (moqueca), Caribbean pastry (beef patty), and Portuguese fried food (croquetes). Through food imagery, Masego successfully describes Juls’ transatlantic excursions on Peace and Love, into which the producer astutely blends R&B, Afropop, house, and other influences from the US, Latin America, South Africa, and West Africa.
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