Weather

Me'Shell NdegeOcello | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 8, 2011)
• Original Release Date: 2011
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naive
• ASIN: B005QF0GIK
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,699 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Weather

2. Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

3. Feeling for the Wall

4. Chance

5. Oysters

6. Rapid Fire

7. Chelsea Hotel

8. Dirty World

9. A Bitter Mule

10. Crazy and Wild

11. Petite Mort

12. Dead End

13. Don't Take My Kindness for Weakness

Editorial Reviews

Review

Meshell Ndegeocello's versatility as an artist has made her one of music's least predictable stars: She's been a sultry soul singer, a pop-rock hitmaker, a house diva and a space-jazz explorer, not to mention a bassist for The Rolling Stones and Madonna. As a performer and a songwriter, Ndegeocello is a true seeker, always in pursuit of a surprise.

On her new, Joe Henry-produced album Weather . . . Ndegeocello indulges her soulful alt-pop side, expanding on the quieter and more sensual moments of 2009's Devil's Halo. Pairing seductive, Sade-esque vocals with catchy downtempo arrangements, she crafts some seriously affecting torch songs here. Though many of the tracks on Weather convey a sweet soul jangle, they're most affecting when Ndegeocello slows the tempo to the speed of a tender first kiss.

Alternating between expressions of insecurity and brash self-assuredness, Ndegeocello is at her sinewy best here. The heartbreak evoked by 'Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear' is stunning, but the real accomplishment lies in the way the music captures the unique sensation of driving past an old lover's house and not being able to shake that feeling of longing, no matter how much time has passed.

Appropriately titled, Weather captures the complex and unpredictable emotions that accompany intimacy, desire and alienation. They're feelings as familiar and as old as time itself, but as this gorgeous, moving album makes clear, they still have the power to surprise and even terrorize. --NPR First Listen, Mario Cotto, October 30, 2011

Weather is her most consistently strong album in some time, a product of vision and discipline --The New York Times

Every musical stroke is a concise yet instinctive caress; there's no grandstanding, but plenty of sensual vulnerability... Ndegeocello sings of longing and commitment while the bonsai-scaled instrumentation offers countermelodies to the gods. --Spin Magazine

Product Description

Weather finds the eclectic songwriter expanding on her iconic style, a lush album of intimate songwriting. Produced by Grammy-winner Joe Henry (Aimee Mann, Solomon Burke, Ani DiFranco), Weather is the latest addition to Meshell's diverse catalog. A strikingly organic record, the album finds Meshell experimenting with the sparse, orchestral melodies paired with thoughtful lyrics, all performed by a band of fearsome musicians. The album opens with the title track 'Weather,' a spacey, soulful groove that sets the stage for the rest of the record. Tracks like 'Oysters' and her cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Chelsea Hotel' find Meshell constructing hushed ballads, centered around mournful piano. These tracks are juxtaposed with Meshell's defiant, soulful stomps on songs like 'Rapid Fire' and 'Dirty World.' The album also features all-star collaborations with the likes of Chris Connelly (ex-Revolting Cocks, Ministry), Benji Hughes, and Joe Henry.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely November 8, 2011

By SBLove99

Format:Audio CD

This CD reminds me of her Bitter record, although this is more stripped down without the orchestration. The new production suits Meshell's somber mood on love and politics. I like it. She continues to move forward progressively as a soul artist. I suspect she may recieve another grammy nod for this one.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars something out of the ordinary... November 7, 2011

By fisherKing

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

okay, am only 8 songs thru, first listen. but...had to say something.

this is a GORGEOUS album; it's 'pop' music in the best sense of the word; great songs, great sound.
the cover image captures it well: lush, defined, dreamy; full of depth, contrast...all of those things. and the singing is near-magical.

i don't rave like this often, but the album, and the artist, deserve the praise.

BUY IT.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Evolution in Progress December 16, 2011

By Eric G

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

being from D.C., where the artist grew up , i can relate to the music she was raised in as I, us both being musicians an all. What i continually hear whenever I listen to Meshell's music is a growth in the space inside the music. Not to say it is as simple as less is more, even tho in this case, it is. But to grow up and honed in the go-go atmosphere where it is heavy percussion , pure emotional mahem, funk all over the place from the bass..and so on to a transition to a total other place in quiet and sereneness, where ever note counts for something and the emptiness is heard. It speaks volumes for her rebellion against humans being programmed how and what to think, it shows her inner struggle to be more than just another XXXX...and she continues to grow even though it may seems like shes doing less and less musically. I have'nt listened to all of it yet, but man it fells good to listen and appreciate walking down MLK avenue over by St E's and being taken to another place that represents those very same footsteps in a different light. 6 stars for me.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable December 1, 2011

By Lulu

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

"Weather" is moody, smooth, blue and beautiful.

Cohesive and whole.

There are flavorings of earlier albums (Bitter, in particular, but something of Peace Beyond Passion and Devil's Halo here and there), but it's no clone of anything she's done before.

It's remarkably beautiful, actually.

I admire Me'Shell's work, in all it's manifestations, but this may be her masterpiece.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars daaaaaamn. September 12, 2012

By ECL

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

this woman's work makes me believe in art and artists again when my own heart is broken and makes me wonder what was this choice all about really when so few are ever really at your back. you're alone. no distractions at the end of the day. but i suppose that's us all. even you who've got kids traipsing off to college. anyhow, this woman's work is like a subscription to... to what? i don't know. i don't even know how i once made a living as a writer because i can never come up with words when i'm forced out of my retarded, self-absorbed preverbal reveries. but "weather," oy. after loving her work so long this work makes me reconsider falling in love with a woman again for that kind of cellular depth, but i don't know if i'd make it back this time. her love songs, and me'shell also has loved everybody, i think, "how did she do it all? pay the bills and be so available and naked, and have the stamina to keep showing back up as more of herself?" i don't know. but the song "feeling for the wall" has you bypass condescendingly patting her on the head to slithering all over her in some kind of "it'll be okay" thing that love is always about when it's best and you get to forget the expanse of the universe, etcetera etcetera.

(hey, we ALL end up slithering all over Me'Shell at some point or another if you're really listening)

but then you realize SHE'S really slithering all over YOU with her work, and that's why her work is a subscription to a love affair that's no safer because it's aural or emotional.

and then you also realize this is WHY she has so many heart-tearing and expansive love songs: because people play with her and think they're up for the intensity but it's like staring too long at the sun....

see, THEY can't even pay the bills, do their art, and have the love affair with Me'Shell.

she's a SUPERHERO. she swaggers in the kind of emotional nudity that leaves others gelatinous.
plus she makes pretty out of it all. that abyss thang. yeah.

i got this whole album (or whatever they're called these new fangled days. i feel like i come from wax cylinders now that i've quit living so digitally and returned to a much more analogue life) anyhow, i got this when it first came out, but i have to set aside time in my life to commit to listening to it and letting every molecule in my being inhale it. she's intense, even for me and i'm used to people running out on me in bed. yup. middle of everything and all.

this is the sad tragedy of her and all who're so intense and alive in this world. they see and live between the atoms. they don't want the callouses everyone else wants so they can be charming at a party once in awhile.

(i can't do it. i'm at level one where i'm still having tantrums and they're worse now that i'm 45 and see the reality of behaving like dead people)

anyhow,

yeah, me'shell's work is like a subscription to the earth. the ground. but a subscription yourself as well as others: you're not alone. and you smile. and you're in that "bhuddistian" here-and-now thing and forget to be immortal, because only then are you connected and truly immortal anyway, right?

words all contradict themselves, that's why me'shell's daring to even dance with them.

i'm the kind of artist who doesn't understand it when others here say prior works were lacking but this is IT because she's not that kind of "hitter." she's operating on a whole other level than some easy listening work. her work is like the sweat of all she's endured, a carbon dated sample of the history of slavery and being a dark woman in a world that calls that "evil" in a million different ways and black people are still burning their hair straight and blonde and i'm giving 5 stars for the relief that she's still killer. her entire OUEVRE if you will. i always get afraid because i don't know where she'll take me next because her works are like sermons. you can't pull apart a sermon, a scream!

and when i listen to her works in their entireties (for she's still an old-fashioned "album artist"), it feels like all the music that we grew up with never went away. the fight and the groove's still there in her. it didn't get washed away by that corporate sponsorship our "revolutions" have been recently based on.

i'm not a person who thinks "accessibility" equals "success." oh, lort no. in fact i didn't find out about her until long after her initial stints in the light of popular culture. i discovered her when she choked up on a live radio show about the intense love of her daughter and the intensity of life. the british interviewer couldn't take the emotions and cut to "commercial."

i laughed and thought, "poor Me'Shell. what else have you done that makes everyone cut to commercial?"

and ever since, i check her out when i'm not too tormented/blissed out in my own work, and love that she's always True. and fighting. for that i don't feel alone and useless in my own struggles to honor the fights and lessons that come down from my ancestors, through my parents, and now for to me to honor for all those who come after me like a mother. i didn't have my own biological children, but i'm at that part of an artist's life when i realize we all belong to each other already.

--erika lopez

(former writer and i don't know what next because i'm already art now but music and dancing are how i pray these days) Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't Stop Listening... January 15, 2012

By K. Pestaina

Format:Audio CD

On first play, I didn't/couldn't place the sound. Later, on 2nd and 3rd listen, the energy and spirit that gripped me has been as powerful as that of a ghost taking over a host.

I must play this album from 1 to 13, 3 times a day.

Its become a religion, and I am a devout follower.

Awesome soundplay!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful CD! December 22, 2011

By Michael Williams Jr.

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm already a big fan of Meshell Ndegeocello work and this CD was definitely not a disappointment. The whole CD is nice, but my favorite tracks are "chance" and "bitter World". If you are a fan of Neo-soul then you need to get this CD!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece November 7, 2011

By Lemo

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

This might be the best work she's ever done - both accessible and deeply beautiful. Every song is a highlight, but I'm particularly drawn to "Objects in Mirror are Closer than They Appear", "Chance" and "Dead End." A must buy!