Kalakuta Republic 15 April 2025 Fela Kuti and Afrika 70 - Zombie: Released 1977: 4/5 stars I thought it would be fun to try the 1001 album challenge, which is based on the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The book complies 1001 popular music recordings chosen by a panel of music critics and includes writing about each album. The book was originally published in 2005, though has been updated several times to include more recent recordings. While I don’t have a physical copy of the book (I may buy one,) there is a website: https://1001albumsgenerator.com/ that e-mails you a new album to listen to every day at 03:00 GMT. It creates a personal page for you, which you can leave reviews of albums and look back on them. My big fear in doing this challenge is it would select albums I’m already familiar with or albums I don’t like at all. To my surprise the first album is an album by a musician I have never heard of; Fela Kuta and Africa 70 - Zombie. Fela Kuta was a Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as one of the principal innovators of Afrobeat a music genre from Nigerian that combines West African Music with American music styles such as Jazz and Funk. This album is exciting. Stylistically, there are so many twists and turns. The title track Zombie starts off with an almost ska-style upstroke guitar and rhythmic congas. Horns come in and rival some of the best jazz tracks I’ve heard. This sounds like a blend of American Jazz and African music, however at just slightly past 5 minutes into the track vocals come in. The lyrics describe the Nigerian military as zombies who don’t think for themselves, but follow whatever orders they’re given. The song has frequently been used as a protest song. The original LP is just slightly over 25 minutes and consists of lonely two tracks. The second track Follow Follow is of a similar style using an upbeat guitar, bass, simple percussion and trumpets. This time vocals come in at 7 minutes, again another critique of soldiers. On CD and digital releases there are two bonus tracks Observation is No Crime and Mistake live at the Berlin Jazz festival. Overall this album is a great introduction to Afrobeat, a genre I’m wholly unfamiliar with, but intrigued to hear more. This album defies some Western pop music formulas and introduces me to sounds I’ve not heard before. You can hear some of the inspiration music like this had on the Talking Head’s later discography. What’s more interesting than the album itself is the story behind it. While I don’t have time time to dive too deeply at the moment; the political history of Fela Kuti is fascinating. In 1970 he established the Kalakuta Republic a commune and recording studio he declared independent from Nigerian military rule. The commune was raided by soldiers in 1978. In the raid his mother was injured. His outspoken criticism of the Nigerian military made him a political target. That’s as far as I can go with my reading on Fela Kuti today, but look forward to learning more. I rate this album as 4/5 stars. It sounds great and it’s culturally important. On a personal note, it’s not something I would put on often, but if I saw this in a shop on LP or CD I would buy it in a heartbeat.

ehhhh

Too long

I missed this album entirely when it came out. I tend to skip contemporary pop releases because I don’t often enjoy them. I don’t expect many repeat listens to this album; it’s far from what I’d typically listen to. However, I can see the appeal of this one. I was expecting a straightforward R&B pop album, but this is full of stylistic surprises. From the champer-pop-esque Sir Greendown to straight the straightforward pop of Cold War and the ambient Neon Gumbo. This is a pop album, but it borrows a lot of sounds from other genres especially those of the 1960s; psychedelic rock, garage rock, blues etc. At 68 minutes, this suffers issues, I’ve had with other albums, it becomes repetitive quickly and would be more enjoyable if some of the weaker songs were cut. It’s hard to divorce sound quality from my enjoyment of albums and the compression of this album makes it sound as if a thick piece of cloth is put over my speakers. Janelle Monae seems to have great vocal range, but it’s put on a leash with this albums dynamic compression. The only thing allowed to be loud on this album is the sub-bass which gets grating for long listens. Overall I’m rating this a 3/5 – you don’t need to hear this before you die.

I made the mistake of reading other user reviews of this album. Presumably by younger generations than I. Released in 1986, this album continued to get extensive air play on alternative radio stations through the 1990s and 2000s (the era in which I grew up). This album was dated by this time period, especially the immature lyrics. It's the sloppiness and almost amateur quality of this album that makes it enjoyable for me. It's got a rough quality that makes it fun in today's world of glossy albums. Perhaps paved the way for future rap rock albums and eventually nu metal. 4/5 for being a classic, however I prefer Paul's Boutique if we're picking a beasties album.

This is a baraquoe pop album that seems well revered by music critics. It sounds like John cale but without any real groove or edge to it. I'll revisit this but I found it to be a boring listen.

After an assassination attempt Marley relocated to London. Exodus was recorded in a UK style and I feel like this album has a more British feel to the recording. It's strictly roots reggae and the recording has a very clean sound. Like most British rock recordings of the time, every instrument including vocals is pushed as high it can without clipping. Giving this a very alive but overall clean style. A very approachable reggae album for those uniniated with the style.

When I was a child (sometime in the early 90s) my mom asked me if I liked Nine Inch Nails. I had never heard of them, but they must have been massively popular because my mom had read a newspaper article about them. You couldn't listen to alternative rock radio without hearing Closer or Head Like A Hole. Down The Spiral has always seemed like prerequisite course material for 90s rock 101, much like Nirvana's Nevermind. However, unlike Kurt Cobain's effortlessly cool persona, Trent Reznor sounds like he's straining himself to be edgy. This album lead me to listening to some of Reznors influences: Skinny Puppy and Ministry. You immediately hear them in his music, almost as if NIN is covering those bands. I'm not exactly a huge fan of industrial, but those early artists take me to a strange dark world that feels foreign. It's always exciting when music can put you into a different head space. Down the Spiral just sounds like Reznor is trying to hard. I listened to this album for the first time on higher quality audio equipment and it helped me appreciate some of the complexity in the arrangements. Tracks 1-5 were interesting, but this album fell off quickly for me. There's too much filler. I'm going to give this album a 3 out of 5, mainly for it's cultural importance. It brought harsh industrial music onto pop radio. Perhaps it inspired some people to go buy records by many of Trents influences.

Even though this isn't my favorite style of music it's hard to say anything bad about Michael Jackson's music. Off the wall was his first go at creative freedom. An assemble of world class musicians and Quincy Jones production makes for an album that's dialed in with an infectious groove. The only track I don't enjoy is the slow ballad She's out of my life - it slows things down on an otherwise fast paced and exciting album. However, it does showcase Michael's vocal range.

Went out and bought a copy of this, because I enjoyed it, but the remaster on Qobuz is obnoxiously loud.

This is just so far from what I'm used to listening to. I'd have to give this one more time

A solid ambient album to relax to, but overall kind of boring

I might buy an earlier version of this. This remaster is horrible. Album it's self is kitsch like an earlier version of squeeze.

Incredible voice, incredible musicians back in my her up.

Really don't know why this White Stripes album was chosen. I love the White Stripes but this is far from their best.

This has some high points but overall a very inconsistent police album.

Great recording. Excellent album.

one of my favorites, surprised there's two beastie boys albums on this.

Some great tracks on this one, but maxing out the run time of a CD with plenty of filler tracks

This would be more like a 3.75 for me. Starts off great on the A-side but is a bit slow on the b

I like this album, but in no way, would I include it in this list. It's just kind of a fun brit pop album, but it was never as important as the others.

There's some strong material on this, but there's also a lot of bloat/filler tracks. It's not as chilling as his earlier work. Would say this is a high 3 star. Like 3.75

I can't knock the talent on this album, but the 1970's rock cheese is hard to get past. I understand know why punk rock came about, a protest to this excessive 1970's rock music.

I thought I might enjoy this, as some industrial is interesting. But man this just dragged on. Grunting in German over a military march.

This would be a 3.75 for me. I like parts of this album, but it's excessively long.

There's some solid tracks on this, but also a lot of weak material

Nothing super memorable on this album for me

Really loud and fatiguing, especially mazing out the run time of a CD.

High 3 mainly due to influence on rock and roll, for better or worse. Not something I'd probably listen to again

Other than the hits this was a slog. Felt way longer than 45 minutes.

Understand of the importance of this, just not for me.

This thing shreds.