³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

(Here's Akon recording the song, which you can hear in full at his . Can you tell that his producer bloke is kind of keen for people to visit HIS MySpace page instead? )

As you can see, someone in the Akon camp has taken the view that another song about the ladies would probably not go down well right now, seeing as THAT concert clip has sealed his repututation as a mindless humping machine. So, in an effort to show a more thoughtful, spiritual side to the man, here's his song in tribute to his African homeland. And not just Senegal either, the whole damn continent.

Now, cynical pop-watchers may sneer that this is just an act of damage limitation, but that would kind of miss the point. Here's a hardened, bling-obsessed, shag-monster channelling the spirit of Bob Marley, and singing about watering his garden, praying, and wallowing in the love of an entire continent. Surely that's worth having a listen to?

It's kind of like when Snoop Dogg revealed a hidden love of football (as in soccer), suddenly all that stuff about cars and guns and girls seemed even sillier, and we all got a glimpse of the man underneath the image, and he turned out to be rather cute.

And sure, he might be attempting to rescue his public reputation, but he's also trying to do the same thing for Africa in general, pointing to the beautiful, cool and peaceful places, rather than those which have been ripped apart by war, drought, political turmoil and general hardship (which is the kind of Africa the media at large tends to show). That's not a viewpoint you hear every day, and it should be, seeing as Africa is clearly big enough to contain both extremes.

Besides, if we all ignore him when he does something good like this, he'll only go back to singing about sex again, and I for one could live without that. Whaddya say?

Download: Out now
CD Released: July 30th

(Fraser McAlpine)