Kareem Salama’s New Album: “This Life of Mine”: Review
Published by Saad Omar August 17th, 2007 in Kareem Salama
He writes with the swift pen of a passionate poet, the gentle concerns of an aged wiseman, and the spiritual anguish of a enlightened saint. It is no surprise that Kareem Salama is being heralded as the best thing we’ve heard in the Muslim scene…since…well…ever.
Kareem did me the favour of sending me his new album two weeks before its official release for a sneak preview. I have to admit that I had butterflies in my stomach as I opened file by file slowly with my headphones tightly against my ears and my bedroom door firmly closed. I needed privacy. I want to go into Kareem’s lyrical universe for the next hour and explore the world through the eyes of this most excellent poet/singer.
For the past two weeks I have been listening to Bob Dylan with an obsessive interest so my lyrical standards were quite high as I carefully listened to Kareem’s latest effort and oh MAN was i not disappointed!
Once again, Kareem Salama has set the standard for so-called “Islamic Music”…since he’s the best in the game, it seems as he is playing a game of 1 on 1 chess with himself to see if he can out do himself. “Generous Peace” was a good album, there’s no way around that… but “This Life of Mine” has taken his lyrical and musical complexity to a completely different level. The album is the composite of literally 11 strong songs, 6 of which I found great, 5 borderline amazing.
Its much more personal than the first. You can tell that the writing is straight from inspiration and from deep and personal spaces within Kareem’s creative mind and heart. Ironically it is the type of album that is made with loyalty to the music over the audience but will without doubt lead to great loyalty from his growing fans.
This is the first time (with and exception to Dawud Wharnsby’s latest albums) that the quality of music has been so high that I forgot I was not listening to one of the greats, a Dylan or a Lennon.
Furthermore, this is surely an album that will be celebrated by everyone, regardless of religion, race, ideology, or social class… at least this is my prediction.
For all the facebook feigns, search “kareem salama” under “events” to find out an events group with updated info on his performances at ISNA, cd release, and how to meet him at ISNA and as always check out his site www.kareemsalama.com
My rating: 4 Full Moons and 1 Crescent (haha)
-Saad Omar
9 Responses to “Kareem Salama’s New Album: “This Life of Mine”: Review”
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Pingback on Aug 17th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
The song “Generous Peace” is beyond beautiful… when I first heard “Get Busy Living” I thought no song can top this one but he proved me wrong and I’m glad he did
stay blessed Kareem
I can’t wait to hear it! He is indeed one of the best. Keep up the good work!
definitely look for this album at isna
Personally, I don’t think Kareem Salam’s type of music is under “Islamic music/nasheeds”. It’s basically under Country music and he’s just a Muslim artist in that genre. It’ll be cool if you heard his stuff on the radio.
Wow, this is awesome. The Muslim music scene is just growing and growing, and the quality of music and entertainment keep improving. I can’t wait for the album to drop.
mujahidenryder makes an interesting point…thats why i qualified “islamic music” with quotations and the label “so-called” because it is very hard to pin-point and define… although it could be argued that his music IS definitely under “nasheeds” as arabic nasheeds were not always filled with basic references to the Quran or Prophet (S).
anyways, whatever you call it, its quality music…alhamdullah… and about time theres some quality music coming from muslim artists outside of the underground rap arena
I think he is a great lyricist. But country music is something I personally abhor. Its not my cup of tea. Country music never left the shores of the US. It was never accepted by the world just like Baseball. His music will not take off except maybe within the niche of the Muslim community in the USA. He will definitely not be accepted or more correctly warmly received by the Music industry in the USA. However, he will be a good ambassodor for peace and everytime there is a terrorist attack in the USA, the US media will invite him to speak. Thats the sad and unfortunate reality. Wish him the best
I bought the album off I-tunes, it was my first purchase and I wasn’t dissapointed in the least and can listen again and again, I used to listen to american christian country music yearning for the spiritualness in it but now i got a muslim slanted country music so now the best of both world yay! and about the comment by shaheen, very pessimistic post and i hope this guy goes far! buying the album on itunes will sure take it a long way as i think its used for chart stats? correct me if i am wrong