For(e)ward

Album review

Just as his father had to deal with the career benefits and limitations of being the scion of an icon, Made Kuti is kicking off his international music career in the position of someone who has to both honor the legacy of his father (and grandfather) and simultaneously forge his own path. Wisely, he is not dodging the issue at all with For(e)ward, released simultaneously with his father's new album Stop the Hate and as a deluxe, two-album package called Legacy+. For(e)ward is not only sharing a release date with his father's latest, but also a producer (erstwhile Fela producer Sodi Marciszewer) and album cover artist (Delphine Desane). However, the similarities beyond that are few and far between. Yes, Made is working in an afrobeat heritage, but he is neither explicitly beholden to the style established by his (literal) forebears nor to the more contemporary, hip-hop-indebted permutations recently dominating dancefloors. Instead, Made even explicitly and reverently invokes his grandfather on one song, "Different Streets," about how, as time passes, some things may seem familiar and connected to the past, but there are even more things changing, growing, and evolving into that which will move us into the future. And Made is definitely moving into the future. Rather than utilizing a small army of musicians like his father and grandfather, all of the music here was created by Made himself, and while it shares textural and structural similarities with classic afrobeat—the languid horns, the insistent rhythms, the politicized lyrics—there is a density and complexity to these tunes that is unique. The jagged, interrupted rhythm of album opener "Free Your Mind" does a great job of expectation-setting, making it clear that this won't be another stop on the Kalakuta Express; meanwhile, the scratchy guitar lines and off-kilter drum parts, whispered vocals, synth banks and other unexpected flourishes that make their way into the a packed-full song like "Young Lady" point the way toward many future iterations of highly individualized take on the family tradition. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz