The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa

01 Yalira
02 Chalo
03 Warm Heart of Africa Featuring Ezra Koenig
04 Mwazi
05 Nsokoto
06 Angonde
07 Julia
08 Mfumu
09 Ntende Uli
10 Rain Dance Featuring M.I.A.
11 Kamphopo With Intro
12 Kada Manja
13 Zam’dziko
14 Warm Heart of Africa Featuring Ezra Koenig (Architecture in Helsiniki Remix)
15 Warm Heart of Africa Featuring Ezra Koenig (Theophilus London Remix)

With the likes of El Guincho, Vampire Weekend, the Ruby Suns and many more jumping on the African/tropicalia bandwagon, it seems like critical mass is fast approaching for purveyors of brittle afro-pop. But the Very Best boast credentials the like that bands who spend years at an Ivy League school learning about Africa can't touch--lead singer Esau Mwamawaya is actually from Africa, and he met Radioclit, a U.K. production team, while he was working at a thrift shop. The chance meeting led to the group, now christened the not at all boasting the Very Best, to release 2008's excellent mixtape Esau Mwamawaya and Radioclit are...The Very Best, a great mix that found the Very Best covering the Beatles with help from Ruby Suns and covering Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" with help from...Vampire Weekend.

Now the group is giving the full-length album a go with Warm Heart of Africa, the vibe of which is surely captured on first single "Warm Heart of Africa." Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig helps out on the hook on that one, but he's not the only big guest star on the record: M.I.A. also guests on a track.