It had been five years since Malian superstar couple Amadou & Mariam last treated their fans to a new long player. For 'La Confusion' the duo joined forces with French producer Adrien Durand (Bon Voyage Organisation), who gave the album a bit of an eighties vibe here and there (the influences from Chicago house in opener 'Safou Boufou', a pamphlet against laziness, the saxophone solo and keyboard riffs in title track 'La Confusion', the disco/funk vibes and again Adrien Soleiman's eighties sax in 'Filao Bessame'). Album title 'La Confusion' refers to all the confusion and chaos spreading like wildfire across the world: "C'est la confusion partout. C'est l'illusion partout. C'est surtout la division!", or as Amadou puts it himself: "Nothing is what it seems, and you have to have a lot of patience to understand what is really going on.". But on 'La Confusion' Amadou & Mariam of course tackle a variety of issues; in 'C'est Chaud' they try to convince possible future African migrants of the fact building a life is difficult anywhere, 'Femmes Du Monde' is an ode womanhood and with 'Mass Allah' the duo even call on the Most High himself. A tad surprising is that Amadou & Mariam this time opted not to invite any vocal guests, but African musicians like Djeli Moussa Diawara (kora) and Youssouf Diabaté (ngoni) still make an appearance alongside Brazilian percussionist Ze Luis Nascimento and the aforementioned French saxophonist Adrien Soleiman. Amadou & Mariam may be blind, with 'La Confusion' the duo once again prove they have a sharp eye on the social and political developments in the world.