REVIEWSOmar Souleyman, ‘Dabke 2020’

8

• SPIN Rating:8 of 10

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Label: Sublime Frequencies

For Fox News and likely many Americans, Syrian pop star Omar Souleyman's mere visage -- turbaned, sunglassed, and mustachioed -- would probably strike terror. And yet belying such surfaces, Souleyman likes to party hard, rock out, and pine for lost love. On a song that translates to "I Will Pick a Flower From Your Cheek," he howls over a needling, hypnotic synth groove, and the tinny Casio on "Jamila (The Beautiful Woman)" can't lessen his cry of heartbreak.

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