Album Review: Femi Kuti, Journey Through Life

On Journey Through Life, Fela Kuti’s son, Femi, is on production duties for the first time, with deeply personal results.

The album is a summary of the serial-Grammy nominee’s life from childhood to adulthood, with a concentration on the core of family. Recorded at the newly built Kuti family studio, Legacy Plus, the record rotates around powerful centrepiece ‘After 24 Years’, a blasting – both sonically and lyrically – critique of the political leadership in Nigeria, reinforcing Femi’s enduring commitment to music as a tool for resistance.

The opening title-track comes out fighting, with a delicious sax riff over a divine breakbeat, complete with gospel chorus – if you’re not already on your feet, you’re spiritually in bother. On ‘Corruption na Stealing’ and ‘Politics Don Expose Them’, revolution has never sounded better: these are protest songs to dance your heart out to.

Elsewhere, ‘Shota’ is a piquant cocktail of Afropunk, while Femi wholeheartedly delivers the honest goods on ‘Work On Myself’, before wrapping on classic Kuti cut ‘Think My People Think’. The heart and soul of modern Afrobeat...

9/10

Out now