Next on my list is a Eurythmics album, and I don't want to do any 80s music after Dinosaur Jr. In yet another moment of self-indulgence, I've decided to skip ahead a little and pick out an album just because I feel like listening to it. To honor my younger brother's relatively new band, not to mention his adorable kitten, I'm picking the other Fela Kuti album that appears on The Big List, the politically charged Zombie.
I don't want to get deep into the politics involved in Zombie, as 1970s Nigerian politics are probably too heavy a subject for my stupid little blog. But from what I've read the album is a scathing commentary on the Nigerian military and government. Neither party was too happy with Fela Kuti or his associates, resulting in Kuti's commune being burned by the military and his mother being killed.
I mention this because it makes me slightly wary of being too harsh about Kuti's music or the afrobeat scene in general. Much like reggae the music seems to be really emotionally charged. Being involved with afrobeat seems to mean more than just liking the music. On the other hand, just like reggae afrobeat music is highly derivative. The songs tend to have great grooves but be very repetitive and long, with multiple solos, sparse lyrics, and little variation. What you hear in the first minute of a song is probably what you'll hear in the final 8 to 12.
But that's based on the 6 or so afrobeat songs I'm vaguely familiar with, so maybe it's wrong to judge an entire genre based on that. Sadly I won't get a much larger sample size with Zombie, a 25-minute album that contains only 2 songs. This post will probably have a longer introduction than it does an actual review.
"Zombie" has a great funky guitar lead-in to a ripping sax solo. This is a cool and lively tune, though I can imagine being the guitar player who has to pound out those two chords over and over and begging for a solo or even just a key change. The lyrics finally kick in after about 5 minutes, but all I can really understand is, "Zombie, oh zombie." I know this is a critical commentary on the Nigerian military, but my American ears can only hear a bright and fun song that most people would dance to while doing lots of recreational drugs. Which I suppose might be the point, to have fun at the expense of an oppressive regime. It's quite a terrifying thought actually.
The other track on the original album is "Mr. Follow Follow." It's a very slow 4-note groove that features plenty of sax soloing. The groove is so hypnotizing. Eventually I realize there's a shaker in the mix pounding out quarter notes and suddenly that's the only thing I can hear. It's like the first time you hear the bass drum pedal squeak in "Since I've Been Loving You" and then you can never not hear it. In any case, the song just goes on and on until Mr. Kuti finally decides to sing a little. His singing really isn't bad, and I wonder if I'd like these songs more if they were broken up better. These 6 minutes of introduction really drag things down and by the time Kuti does start singing I'm well past ready for the song to end.
I really just don't care much for the afrobeat I know. The songs are way too long with very little pay off. I love long songs. I regularly listen to "Telegraph Road", "Station to Station", even a 30-minute version of "Dazed and Confused". But those songs mix things up a lot with varying movements and thunderous conclusions. Afrobeat songs tend to start, play a while, and eventually stop. It's just not enough.
I'm especially disappointed that this album only contained 2 songs. It's not like those really had tons of content that would justify their length. I remember saying that Soft Machine's Third, a double-album containing only 4 songs (one for each LP side) at least had lots of cool music ideas over it's extended runtime. That's not the case with Zombie. I understand this music, especially "Zombie" means a lot to Fela Kuti, his cause, and his fans. But that's not enough to call it great.
If I come back to afrobeat again I hope it's more than this. 2 stars.
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