I.T.T. (International Traveller Trouble)

This track arrives with a mischievous energy that distinguishes it from KSA's more devotional or ceremonial work — there's humor encoded in the very title, a knowing wink at the complications that come with traveling between worlds. The guitars have a slightly more Westernized feel here, a nod to the pop-crossover ambitions of his early 1980s international period, but the Jùjú infrastructure remains fully intact underneath: the layered percussion, the talking drum commentary, the interlocking rhythm guitars. Thematically it navigates the predicament of the traveled man — the expectations, the demands, the subtle disruptions to identity and relationship that international movement creates — and KSA treats it with affectionate irony rather than complaint. His vocal delivery is warm and almost conspiratorial, as if he's sharing an inside joke with everyone who has ever returned home from abroad and been met with a new set of problems they didn't anticipate. The production has a slightly brighter, more forward-mixed quality than his more traditional recordings, a concession to international radio ears without abandoning the polyrhythmic heart that makes his music what it is. This is the song for airport lounges, for long flights home, for that specific cocktail of excitement and mild dread that comes with crossing back over a threshold you've been away from too long.