Fans of Fela Kuti—and, really, what listener of the jammed-out African funk known as Afrobeat doesn’t worship its creator?—have been treating the emergence of his son, Seun Kuti, like the coming of the messiah, and understandably so. Where older brother Femi has smoothed the edges off their father’s rugged Nigerian sound, Seun makes no such concessions, resurrecting Fela’s style so faithfully, this debut album could easily be confused for a lost ’80s platter from the man himself.

Of course, having his dad’s longtime backing group—Egypt 80, with which Seun began playing at age 9—onboard helps in that regard, as do Seun’s Fela-like primary composing tools: unremitting grooves, punchy horns and calls and responses in English, African dialects and combinations thereof.

It’s nearly impossibly to spin ridiculously rhythmic tracks like “Na Oil” and “Fire Dance” without shaking something, but that hardly means Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 is an entirely joyous experience. Seun’s contemporary African themes—poverty, disease, militarism, social inequality—mirror his father’s subject matter from three decades back, suggesting little has improved on the continent. As Fela did in his day, Seun expresses both despair (“Don’t Give That Shit to Me,” in which he warns outsiders, “Don’t bring bullshit to Africa”) and hope (“Think Africa,” in which he welcomes all comers to “think of the ways you can solve the problems”).

The bottom line:***1/2