360 Staff Pick: The Very Best

Playlist anxiety this party season? It’s The Very Best to the rescue. Fronted by a Malawian Esau Mwamwaya, the band made mixtape history last year with its killer remixes of M.I.A’s ‘Paper Planes’ and Vampire Weekend’s ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.’ Even without those tunes, the album offers dizzying layers of Afropop and sunny vocals in English and Chichewa over techno dance beats. The title track is a party-starter with its happy mix of textures: a deep heartbeat of a bass line, cowbell, choir-style back-up vocals, and toe-tapping guitar riffs. It just might move you to book a flight to Lilongwe, which is appropriate, because it turns out Warm Heart of Africa is Malawi’s tourism slogan too.