Artist: Female solo artist
Career: recording since 1997, 2nd album
Language: English
Genre: R&B
At first this sounded like too many jams, not enough songs – granted some of the jams sounded incredible, but still jams, you know. Then I started reading up on it, and the jams were the selling point for Ms. Badu. So I listened again, and now my main impression was how melodic the jams were. Slowly the individual tracks started rising up, I appreciated the editing and the way songs morphed into one another. Soon I started thinking in terms of a great neo-soul record. It starts off with the monumental ‘Penitentiary philosophy’, truly Funkadelic for the modern age, then it eases itself into a suite of low-key piano-led tracks, and in the second half (it’s a long record) it gets more varied again, and some of the best tracks are at the end (tearjerker ‘Bag lady’, epic songsuite ‘Green eyes’). Full of grooves and jazz, hip poetry and singing from the heart. In a strong year for neo-soul, this was one was not to be denied. Not as immediate as her debut, but miles better.
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