Thievery Corporation - The Richest Man In Babylon

The Richest Man in Babylon is the group Thievery Corporation's third album, released on their Eighteenth Street Lounge label. It was released in 2002. Like Thievery Corporation's previous albums, The Richest Man in Babylon is electronic music with a downtempo aesthetic. The group mixes many different styles in an audacious fashion. Diverse influences such as dub, jazz, dance music, rap, reggae, and especially Indian music are boldly yet smoothly combined. The group's usual elements of echoing synth lines, heavy bass, compressed beats and acoustic instruments are present as well. The songs are sung in English, Spanish, French and Persian, complementing the group's cosmoplitan outlook. The title track, as well as "State of the Union", incorporate protest music into the group's sound, with both songs making strong political statements. The album features various singers from all over the globe (Iceland, Jamaica, France) including Emiliana Torrini, LouLou, Pam Bricker, Latin singers and several Jamaican rappers. The album features both electronic and live instrumentation, treading the "the line between acoustic and electronic music as a drunken sailor might, unpredictably falling on one side or the other with equal frequency," as one music journalist put it in a positive review.