Songlines – August 2026

Summary

Gala's Freed from Desire was chosen by five different nations, Rosalía's Despechá plays when Spain score, and Songlines August 2026 opens its editor's letter on that World Cup playlist before turning to Belize, Jamaica and Cambodia across the features.

Lila Downs talks tarot and transformation with Humphrey Inzillo at page 28, the Garifuna Collective stir up rhythmic resistance on Belize's Caribbean coast at page 34, Patricia Meschino interviews Barrington Levy, reggae's Robin Hood, at page 40, and a Beginner's Guide to Sinn Sisamouth, the Elvis of Cambodia, sits at page 38.

The rest runs wide. Brooks Barnum interviews Adrian Younge about Afro-Disco Makossa at page 46, Rattling Ark takes page 44, Jocelyn Balu page 32, and Orchestra Baobab close at page 84 with Utrus Horas and the line It's About Revolution. Reviews divide by region from Africa at page 48 to Jazz at page 69, and Top of the World offers a free album download.

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Content Guide

▸ Features

p.28 · A Conversation with Lila Downs
Humphrey Inzillo, an editor at Rolling Stone Argentina, host of Frecuencia Afro Blue and a member of REDPEM, interviews Lila Downs, with the cover linking her to tarot and transformation. Interviewer credentials matter here, because the conversation assumes real grounding in Latin American repertoire. Downs is treated as an artist with a body of work rather than a moment. Listen to her catalogue before the tarot material makes sense.

p.34 · Garifuna Collective
Direct from Belize, the Garifuna Collective stir up rhythmic resistance on the Caribbean coast. The cover billing tells you the framing is political as well as musical. A collective rather than a solo star keeps the focus on repertoire. Start with their earliest recordings and the resistance framing lands harder.

p.38 · Beginner's Guide Sinn Sisamouth
The Beginner's Guide slot covers Sinn Sisamouth, called the Elvis of Cambodia. A guide format implies a curated entry route rather than a career retrospective. Cambodian popular music gets rare space in a UK title. Build a playlist from the guide before you dig into the archives.

p.40 · Barrington Levy
Patricia Meschino, a New York City-based writer with over three decades covering Caribbean music for The New York Times, Billboard and Rolling Stone, interviews Barrington Levy, billed on the cover as reggae's Robin Hood. Thirty years of sourcing shows in the specificity of the questions. Levy is one of the few singers here whose voice defined a genre. Play his earliest hits before the interview.

p.46 · Adrian Younge
Brooks Barnum, who studies journalism and mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is training in radio, interviews Adrian Younge about his album Afro-Disco Makossa. A named album gives the piece a subject rather than a career overview. Younge's production work is treated as the entry point. Hear Afro-Disco Makossa before reading the conversation.

p.32 · Jocelyn Balu
The feature covers Jocelyn Balu, listed among the cover's featured names. Balu appears in the issue's artist roster alongside WOMAD, Gorillaz and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Placement between Downs and the Garifuna Collective suggests a Caribbean or African focus. Check the reviews pages for a recorded entry point.

▸ Upfront

p.06 · Top of the World
The section opens the issue and carries the free album download promoted on the cover, with the music detailed at page 48. A download tied to a specific page makes the offer concrete. Compilations work best when the tracklist is printed. Download it before the next issue rotates the selection.

p.08 · The Source
The news section runs Ladysmith Black Mambazo, AnExperience Festival, Sir Richard Bishop, BITOI, Six Shooter Records, Yegor Zabelov, Gorillaz, Fête de la Musique and Iuri Passos. Nine named acts and labels in one section gives it real range. Record labels appearing alongside artists is a useful signal. Note which labels recur across the issue.

p.26 · Simon Says
The regular column sits in Upfront, carrying the founding editor Simon Broughton's name through the masthead. Opinion columns work here as a bridge into the features. It is short enough to read before anything else. Read it, then check the reviews for the records mentioned.

▸ Reviews And Regulars

p.48 · Africa
The reviews open with Africa, the region carrying the free download. Regional organisation rather than star ratings makes the section browsable. Reviews start here, so the issue's weight falls early. Scan the African entries before the later regions.

p.76 · Fireside Stories WOMAD
The regular covers WOMAD, which also appears in the cover's featured list. A festival with history gives the column a subject beyond one edition. WOMAD's programming is broad enough to carry a whole piece. Check the WOMAD dates before booking anything.

p.74 · Field of Research Staging Tradition in Québec
The column examines staging tradition in Québec, treating performance as something researched rather than inherited. Québec's traditional music scene is well documented, which makes the piece substantive. Academic framing suits this slot. Follow up with the recordings named in it.

p.78 · Essential 10
The regular gathers ten essential recordings. List formats work when the choices are specific rather than obvious. It sits between the regional reviews and the closing features. Build a playlist from the ten before the next issue arrives.

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Editor's Take

The strongest thing here is the sourcing: Humphrey Inzillo on Lila Downs, Patricia Meschino with three decades of Caribbean coverage on Barrington Levy, and Russ Slater Johnson's editor's letter turning FIFA's stadium playlist into an argument, with Gala's Freed from Desire chosen by five nations and Rosalía's Despechá for Spain. The Garifuna Collective and Sinn Sisamouth pieces take the issue to Belize and Cambodia rather than the usual circuit. The weakness is the middle. Jocelyn Balu and Rattling Ark get feature pages with almost nothing confirmed about them beyond their names, and the reviews run nine regional sections from Africa to Jazz with no obvious weighting. The free download at page 48 is a good idea buried in Upfront. Best for listeners who follow world music broadly.

Strengths
• Interviewers carry real credentials, including Meschino's three decades on Caribbean music
• Editor's letter documents the FIFA playlist with specific songs for specific nations
• Coverage reaches Belize and Cambodia, not just the usual festival circuit

Weaknesses
• Jocelyn Balu and Rattling Ark features carry almost no confirmed detail
• Nine regional review sections run without any clear weighting

Verdict: Recommended — Downs, Levy and the Sinn Sisamouth guide carry it; the middle features are thin.