Saying that this album “has no heart” would be patently false and, frankly, offensive to the memory of a man who openly criticized and rebelled against oppressive authorities in as many ways as he could, including his music. That’s not what I want to say. What I want to say, however, is that this album didn’t make me personally feel much of anything.
The entire thing is sung in Pidgin English, which – according to Wikipedia – is a form of English spoken widely throughout Nigeria and seemingly large parts of Africa. Kuti chose to write his lyrics in this language so that he could reach as many Africans as possible. This choice seems to have made Kuti’s music reach the market he wanted to reach. For me, individually, an American at his computer nearly forty years after this album’s release – it means I couldn’t understand much of anything being said. I looked up the lyrics and tried to parse some of it and maybe if I spent a long time doing so, I could figure out what’s being said and how it relates to what Wikipedia says this whole thing is about, but I don’t think that would get me anymore "into" this music. It would just help me understand what it's about a little better.
I don’t need lyrics to make me feel something in music, though, so in terms of the actual music... well, it didn’t affect me all that much either. Rhythmically it feels pretty much the same throughout the entire 28 minute runtime of this single-track album. Sometimes it seemed like the saxophone or guitar or other melodic instruments might start doing something that would have excited me, but those moments were rare. When the vocals kick in, the focus is by and large on them and, as discussed above, I don’t get anything from them because I have no idea what’s being said.
The production on this album, however, sounds great. Everything happening is crystal clear, nothing in the mix sounds more forward or loud than it should, the bass guitar and other “supporting elements” are audible if you’re really listening for them, etc.
In a lot of ways, I think this is the reverse of how @unclejam23 felt about one of my previous picks (Rivers of Nihil’s Where Owls Know My Name). I’m all for the journey that album takes you through, primarily musically, but it doesn’t seem to have affected UncleJam all that much, and here that seems reversed.
Perhaps if the elements of this album were broken down into shorter songs that changed things up a lot I’d be more into it, but this one just fell flat for me.
After reading his Wikipedia page, I probably would also be up for a Fela Kuti movie, though. The right pitch from the right person might be able to get it done. That said, there is a movie that got its name from this album.
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