Graeme Thomson

Expectations were met and then exceeded: Arooj Aftab, at Celtic Connections, reviewed

One of those nights where those of us in attendance might feel smugly compelled to say in years to come: ‘I was there.’

Arooj Aftab's music is dark, thick stuff, wrapped in a velvety melancholy. Photo: John Lamparski / Getty Images 
issue 19 February 2022

We gathered on a freezing Sunday night, inside a barrel-vaulted church designed in the 1890s by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, to witness a cresting wave. Vulture Prince, the third album by the Brooklyn-based Pakistani singer, composer and producer Arooj Aftab, was one of the most accomplished and interesting records of last year.

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