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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams, October 22, 2007
Whatever you do, don't call Meshell Ndegeocello a diva--it's insulting. On the cover of 1996's Peace Beyond Passion, she could have been taken for Diana King, or Monica, or T-Boz, and its music only hinted at turning left from standard-issue R&B. That's all behind us now. Over a decade, Ndegeocello has used her leverage and her nine Grammy nominations to test her audience with consistently more challenging material, venturing into psych-rock and spoken-word while kicking her deep bass to the front lines. Along the way, she's established herself as a prophet of sorts, understanding the need for self-expression and warning us of others' attempts to impinge on it. And while that's not a novel technique, few soul artists weld their music and their sentiments into such a fascinating whole like Meshell Ndegeocello, exemplified by the sprawling, frequently brilliant The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams.
If Bitter revealed Ndegeocello's darker emotions, Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape upped the bass and the political overtones, and Comfort Woman bathed in styles divergent from R&B, The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams is the place where she's comfortable doing it all at once. Yet this album busts out of the gate with a take-no-prisoners intensity that makes her previous masterworks look like warm-up exercises. The secret weapon may be her crop of collaborators--everyone from star mixer Bob Power to African folk singer Oumou Sangare to a handful of jazz greats--in all likelihood courtesy of her move to Mercury-owned jazz label Emarcy. Though World doesn't sound like a jazz record per se, it takes its inspiration from the genre's iconoclasm, and together, Ndegeocello and her guests work up a loud, dense, phantasmagoric sound. Oftentimes, it's difficult to tell where Ndegeocello ends and the others begin.
Before now, Cookie was Ndegocello's hardest-hitting record, balancing bump-and-grind funk with the dark, groove-laden sensuality for which she's become known. But World isn't just sensual--it's sexual, with more carnal bass and raunchy, squall-heavy guitar per minute than anything she's yet attempted. For Ndegeocello, sex isn't a brute act to be immediately forgotten or a strategy to sell records, but a bodily necessity, a human right, and manna for the soul. A line like "Let's make love and manifest creation" (in "Virgo") implies control over one's destiny--creating creation from the act of love--and moving closer to God, the creator, even as it's literal meaning speaks only to having a baby. On "Michelle Johnson," she explains, "I'm just a soul on the planet / I'm trying to do good, be good, and feel good." There's an apparent discrepancy between being good and feeling good here, as though they were mutually exclusive, and the rest of the song is devoted to feeling good ("Sometimes I drink too much / Smoke too much"), being good be damned.
So it would make sense that The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams is body music of a very particular stripe. In her apparent disregard for which sounds traditionally go together, Ndegeocello shatters R&B's musical boundaries and opens up a range of emotions. Think Subtle's For Hero: For Fool with the pricklier edges sanded down and more seductive textures. "Virgo" and "Elliptical" are particularly successful on this front, where Ndegeocello and her instrumentalists smear sci-fi soul-isms over a bed of clean bass and spare drum clicks. The lovely but reproachful "Shirk"--sung by Ndegeocello and Oumou Sangare, with jazz near-legend Pat Metheny on acoustic guitar--signals a turning of the tides before the one-two-three punch of "Article 3," "Michelle Johnson," and "Headline," a trio of guitar-led blazers more snarling and confrontational than anyone raised on Peace Beyond Passion could have expected. It's wildly ambitious music and it works, steeping you so fully in Ndegocello's universe that you'll easily forget that World is, by some margin, her most difficult outing to date.
What's missing from this album are things that don't matter much considering its context: a standout, a true R&B number, an epic slow-burner like "Akel Dama" from Cookie. It's more noteworthy that World is one of the most enormous-sounding soul records of the 2000s, dwarfing Sa-Ra's The Hollywood Recordings in about two-thirds of the time. And though only one song makes it to 150 bpm, World feels fast, running ever more swiftly along a tightly pulled zip-line until the soothing "Solomon" breaks the tension. The fact that Ndegeocello's best songs are her most forceful isn't entirely an accident; she has her hands gripped around the controls, from the writing to the playing to the arrangement, all in the service of making a statement. World makes it obvious that Ndegeocello believes in herself enough to make those statements, and to consequently release something this bold, this audacious, and this flat-out incredible. She'll make a believer out of you, too.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
More brilliance., November 1, 2007
Meshell is unique. There simply isn't anyone like her in any genre. A fearless musical warrior who follows her own vision regardless of accepted genres or markets. Such people are rare. And Meshell navigates these perilous waters with the skill and single mindedness of Ahab; guided by an inner spiritual vision that she presents without wearing it on her sleave.
Her previous CD Dance of the Infidels was a departure from what had been the general territory (and I do mean general) she'd treaded in the past. It was almost as if she held the role of enabler; an almost maternal figure wherein her own presence was downplayed in favor of bringing out the voices of the other musicians.
TWHMMTMOMD holds this quiality. But here she steps back into the forefront. And like all her musical works, she is painfully honest. Most artists hide themselves in their music. Meshell reveals herself.
Some of these tracks show a balance between contrasting elements. For example, "The Sloganeer" is a punkish angry song about those who abuse religious teachings for political purposes; yet there is an unmistakable undercurrent of sadness in the song. As if her anger was inspired by a desire to persuade rather than condem. It reminds me of the Qur'an (Meshell is a Muslim) in that English translations often sound angry and severe; while the tone of the original Arabic is sad and compassionate.
As always, the musicianship here is masterful, the production flawless, and the whole CD flows easily and seamlessly through a variety of moods and ideas.
All in all, a masterpiece. But then again, this is Meshel Ndegeocello. Can we expect anything less?
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely Sick! She Killed It!, September 26, 2007
MESHELL KILLED IT! She was in a zone when she put this work together! She channeled PRINCE, HERBIE HANCOCK, and MILES DAVIS and made GUMBO out of it. This project tops her best gem, PEACE BEYOND PASSION, while I didn't think that could be possible. It's total aggression and focus. The cd comes at you like a UFO, rocks your world, and leaves without a trace. But afterwards, you know that you've met another life form to be reckoned with. This is the hippest trip in SOUL MUSIC right now and is funkier and more stylish than any other R&B release on September 25. I won't say any other artists' names, but you know who they are - look 'em up.
I heard BITTER, PEACE BEYOND PASSION, COMFORT WOMAN, and COOKIE on this project and they all blended beautifully. This is a must get cd and it ties in all of her previous motifs. This cd propels her into another stratosphere (as if she wasn't there already), so get your telescope because the spaceship is about to take off!
THIS IS SOUL ASCENSION IN IT'S RAWEST AND FINEST MOMENT.
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