Zombie by Fela Kuti

This album is unique on this list in the effect that it had. The title track is an excoriating attack on the Nigerian military, effectively calling them mindless zombies for blindly following orders. The government junta was so threatened by this that they sent a force of 1000 soldiers to attack Kuti. They brutally murdered his elderly mother, razed his studio and the commune where he lived, and Kuti himself was lucky to escape with his life.

This experience didn’t deter him from his political activism (he stood for president and spent time in jail on trumped up charges), releasing a mind boggling number of albums (16 in 1976 and 1977 alone) and marrying 27 women at the same time. Wowzers - where did he find the time?

The music here is pure Afrobeat, taking traditional rhythms and reclaiming Western jazz and funk sounds, bringing them back to their African roots. The result is infectious, danceable and politically charged in all the right ways, and it’s easy to see why a performance of Zombie in Accra sparked a riot.

An easy five stars from me!