When it comes to global pop, few groups do the “global” part quite as convincingly as this duo; originally a trio composed of French producer Etienne Tron, Swedish producer Johan Karlberg, and Malawi-born vocalist Esau Mwamwaya, the three met in London when Mwamwaya sold Tron a bicycle. Three albums later, the duo has parted ways with Tron but continues to make music informed by an international perspective and, quite often, sung in Malawi’s native language Chichewa.
A partial exception to that rule comes in the form of “Let Go,” the lead single from the duo’s April release, Makes a King. Opening on a swelling wave of strummed notes and blinking female vocals, Mwamwaya throws English speakers a bone by including the song’s title in the otherwise-in-Chichewa lyrics (which, according to the band’s Facebook page, translate to include the sentiment “This life’s worth more/Than silver and gold”). Even if you can’t understand most of the words, however, the song’s warmth is palpable, radiating into Mwamwaya’s impossibly catchy vocals and burrowing through the track’s swaggering beat.