MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO
Produced by Smoke And Mirrors
Released June 3, 2014
PERSONNEL:
Meshell Ndegeocello: Vocals, Bass Guitar
Chris Bruce: Guitar, Bass Guitar on "Friends"
Jebin Bruni: Keyboards and Programming
Amp Fiddler: Synth Bass on "Friends"
Sylvester Earl Harvin: Drums and Percussion
Kaveh Rastegar: Bass Guitar on "Conviction"
Gabe Noel: Cello on "Comet, Come To Me"
Jonathan Wilson: Guitar on "Good Day Bad" and "Comet, Come To Me"
Doyle Bramhall: Guitar and Vocals on "Tom" and "Good Day Bad"
My Brightest Diamond: Vocals on "Comet, Come To Me"
If receiving a new album from a treasured artist is akin to receiving a long awaited letter from an old friend, then receiving an album from an artist previously unfamiliar is very much akin to making a new friend. Dear readers, please allow me to tell you about the new album by my new friend Meshell Ndegeocello.
Now I first have to explain that Meshell Ndegeocello is an artist who has existed upon my musical radar for many years but I never really had, or at least felt the opportunity to reach out and try her music. But, like I always say, music chooses you! Very late one evening near the end of May, I was at home simultaneously working on my computer and scrolling through the Facebook news feed when I came across a link to Ndegecello's new album, which was being streamed for free upon the official National Public Radio website. For an unbeknownst reason, I clicked upon the link and found myself listening to about half of the album, completely intoxicated and determined to purchase it on its release day, which I most certainly ended up doing. Since making that purchase and now having heard the entire album several times I am extremely excited to announce to you that I think that Meshell Ndegeocello has released one of the finest album releases of 2014.
I have to inform you that my knowledge of Meshell Ndegeocello's discography is even less than scant, as I have heard perhaps a song or two. She is also an artist that I have not really ever heard played on the radio aside from her duet with John Mellencamp, the hit cover of Van Morrison's "Wild Night" from 1994, so I truly had no idea of what to expect with "Comet, Come To Me," Ndegeocello's 11th album.
The myriad shadings of love make up the full subject matter throughout the album as "Comet, Come To Me" contains introspective interpretations of interpersonal relationships. But even so, Ndegeocello has not concocted quaint selections of polite dinner music. What she and her bandmates have delivered is what could be described as audio paintings; atmospheric, moody, intoxicating works of art designed to lose yourself inside of.
With a plucked guitar pattern which would not sound out of place on a King Crimson album, "Comet, Come To Me" begins with on a most ominous note with a cover of Whodini's classic hip-hp track "Friends," a percussive selection filled with eerie analog synths, the repeated almost robotic sounding chant of the song's title and lyrics, partially rapped, sung or even whispered, suggesting not the duplicitous voices of others being spoken into your ears but rather the conflicted voices inside of one's head, as with this following section...
"You say you and you girlfriend were so tight
You took her out with you and your guy one night
She even had a set of keys to your home
And you shared mostly everything you owned
But as she shook your hand, she stole your man
And it was done so swift, it had to be a plan
Couldn't trust her with cheese, let alone your keys
With friends like that you don't need enemies"
Once "Friends" makes it fade out and the gentle acoustic guitar strummings of the album's second track "Tom" fade in, it seems that the storm clouds have passed. Yet, once Ndegeocello sings, "There's nothing between us/Except the feeling of nothing/The nothing of so close/The nothing of being too close/How it slips away...love," we know that we are still in for an emotionally turbulent ride.
As the lyrical path of "Comet, Come To Me" suggests a journey from the tension of interpersonal dissolution to the satisfied release of resolution (the album's closing track "American Rhapsody" contains the sentiments, "There will suddenly be new success, like Easter clothes...A bonafide life will arrive at last...There will be the sound of silvery thunder to shatter all the insane silence.."), what really struck me abut the album was its musical sophistication, beautiful sequencing and completely enveloping production. Ndegeocello and her bandmates have created a collection of songs and performances that are so sonically malleable, that they flow to the point of sounding almost liquefied.
From the acoustic based blues of "Good Day Bad" where Ndegeocello laments, "I'm surprised every sunrise the Earth would have me back/Surprised my knees hold me up and that it's not all gone black," the album glides us through "Forget My Name" with its dub reggae textures, the hypnotic title track with its mantra like vocals, the shimmering and glistening "Shopping For Jazz," and more ambient selections like the airy piano/bass dialogue found within "Choices," which contains the gorgeous lyrics, "So many colors...I choose you."
It just pleased my ears to hear how all 13 tracks phase seamlessly from one genre to another, almost shape-shifting at will or whim. For instance, "Continuous Performance" begins as a song that is threatening to break off into a full rock and roll number with its chugging guitar rhythms but it soon transforms into something that is lusciously atmospheric. Elements of reggae also merge luxuriously with atmospherics throughout the album as on tracks like "Modern Time," and throughout the entirety of "Comet, Come To Me" everything sounds so miraculously free flowing. In some ways, I think that Ndegeocello could easily re-record all 13 of these songs in completely different textures so that "Comet, Come To me" would almost sound as if it is a completely different album. Even so, we do have this album as it is and with musicianship of such high quality, you will easily be able to gather that the songs had to have been meticulously arranged in order to be performed this effortlessly.
Meshell Ndegeocello's "Comet, Come To Me" is an album that I would place in the same musical neighborhoods of releases from Peter Gabriel, late period Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon or even some of Kaki King's works. It is an album of sublime succulence that demands to be played on repeat as the album's flow is not one that I think you would wish to end.
As I stated at the outset of this month's activities, which pay tribute to Black Music Month, Meshell Ndegeocello, along with The Roots' latest release, have given us what has been so desperately needed within the culture of 21st century African-American popular music. This is a month that not only celebrates the entertainment of Black singers, songwriters, musicians and performers, but mostly and triumphantly, the art and artistry contained within the music and the artists themselves. "Comet, Come To me" is an album of supreme texture, provocative quality and yes, it is also enormously entertaining, no easy feat to produce but Meshell Ndegeocello provides the goods sumptuously.
And now...I think it's time for me to discover Meshell Ndegeocello's other albums and I do have some serious digging to do!
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