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2024 studio album by Mdou Moctar

Funeral for Justice

Studio album by Mdou Moctar

Released

3 May 2024 (2024-05-03)

Recorded

Mid-2023, prior to June

Studio

A home studio in New York, US

Genre

Rock

Length

39:04

Language

Berber (Tamasheq), English

Label

Matador

Producer

Mikey Coltun

Mdou Moctar chronology

Afrique Victime
(2021)

Funeral for Justice
(2024)

“This album is really different for me. Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. When the US and Europe came here, they said they’re going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution.”

—Mdou Moctar, vocalist of the band of the same name, on the political themes and context for recording Funeral for Justice

Funeral for Justice is a 2024 studio album by Nigerien desert blues band Mdou Moctar, released on Matador Records. It has received positive reviews from critics and was supported by a concert tour. The album explores cultural and political themes, including the impact of foreign interference in Nigerien affairs and the replacement of indigenous languages with colonial ones.

Reception

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Funeral for Justice received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 87 out of 100 from 8 critic scores. Writing at The Arts Desk, Guy Oddy scored this release 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "the real deal and, at a time when most Western musicians seem to be afraid or uninterested in calling out those who are driving us all to disaster" and "louder, faster and more overtly political than any of his band’s previous discs". In Exclaim!, Matthew Teklemariam rated Funeral for Justice an 8 out of 10, writing that "the music here is so energetic that it's invigorating" and "the production is a tight fit" that results in "a minor epic built from a surfeit of dissident spirit and Van Halen fanaticism". Shawn Donohue of Glide Magazine praised the musicianship on display: "while Moctar’s fire-breathing guitar playing will grab the headlines, it is the drumming that truly adds an extra punch throughout the album" and "Funeral for Justice finds the band flying high while creating songs they believe passionately in, resulting in the strongest album of Mdou Moctar’s career". A profile of the band at Guitar.com by Huw Baines called this their "most free and experimental album yet" and praised the guitar-playing by band leader Moctar as well as bassist Mikey Coltun's "meticulous production".

Noah Barker of The Line of Best Fit rated Funeral for Justice a 9 out of 10, telling readers "if you’ve heard a previous Moctar record and pieced together the best bits, you’ll have an imitation of Funeral for Justice’s righteous glory, but if you haven’t, use this record as a roadmap in discovering the previous odd-decade of Moctar’s talent". A profile of the band in NME by Oumar Selah stated that this release shows that the band "remain musically inventive and passionate for change in their home nation and beyond". That magazine also published a review by Max Pilley who scored it 4 out of 5 stars, stating that listeners to this "wildly exciting" music "will not just hear the glorious music of the Tuareg people, but they will understand their struggles, too". In The New York Times, Ben Sisario called this release "a cri de coeur of screaming guitars and lyrics decrying the legacy of colonialism in Niger and throughout Africa" that "amps up the urgency" of 2021's Afrique Victime.

At PopMatters, Adriane Pontecorvo rated this album a 10 out of 10, writing that "Even by Mdou Moctar’s high standards, Funeral for Justice is extraordinary. It is searing in music and lyrics, with messages that are essential in a world on fire and whose sounds can carry those messages far and wide. More than any previous Mdou Moctar album, it feels alive: Moctar and his whole band are in the room with their listeners, fanning the flames of righteous resolve and reminding us that if justice is dead, there’s no more fitting tribute to it than raising our voices on its behalf". Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone called this "the band’s most forceful album yet, tailor-made to melt minds at massive festivals" with "anti-colonial and anti-corruption declarations" accompanied by Moctar's guitar work. Editors at Stereogum chose this for Album of the Week, with critic Chris DeVille calling it "a fantastic record that should not have to exist", due to its response to the 2023 Nigerien coup, but continues that it is "too energized to be depressing", with "with shout-along slogans to go along with the rumbling rhythms and guitar heroism".