"News that this one was produced by PJ Harvey's long-time musical partner John Parish was rather exciting, but perhaps it was an idea that looked better on paper. After the deceptively muted opener Lalla with ngoni and cooing backing vocals, quite a bit of Beautiful Africa simply sounds forced and bitty, as if everybody's trying too hard ... I can tell I'm making it sound much worse than it is, at Beautiful Africa is of course vastly better than most attempts by artists from her continent at westernising via tedious identikit rap and R&B, or the god-awful car crash that is Salif Keita's latest. Perhaps it should go down as a noble if disjointed experiment which failed in the execution, but with full credit for at least trying"

"Fifth album puts the Malian on the African A-list ... She and producer John Parish have boosted her use of rock as the bed from which she can soar as close to Oumou Sangaré as possible - Seb Rochford's drumming gives songs such as Kouma an unavoidably non-traditional kick, and the guitar (primarily by the singer herself) have a crunch missing from her early recordings. Parish's work with PJ Harvey has made him the go-to guy for women who shed skins between albums, and this latest persona from Traoré suggests she refuses to accept any boundaries"

"'Beautiful Africa' fører Rokia Traoré i nye retninger, men der er på ingen måde tale om en tandløs eller blankpoleret international popsatsning.At 'Beautiful Africa' har al den kant og nerve, man kan ønske sig, fremgår allerede af titelnummeret. Det er funky, men ikke et bestillingsarbejde fra Afrikas Turistforening. Traoré synger en klagesang for Congo, Elfenbenskysten, Guinea og nu også Mali. Afrikanske lande, hvor borgerkrige, kaos og inkompetente politikere sender naboer i struben på hinanden"