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Four-time Grammy winner Erykah Badu has produced a body of substantial work that has deservedly earned her a reputation to match her commercial success. A strong and gifted musician, her exotic dreamy voice has hypnotised and thrilled since her brilliant debut, 'Baduizm'. She has always filled her music with a strong mystical and spiritual element and this latest effort is no exception, in fact 'Worldwide Underground' is her most ambitious work to date, an album composed while touring, and perhaps for this reason, a highly musical and deeply emotional record.
On "Bump It" Badu sings "Push up the fader, bust the meter, shake the tweeter" before a slick backing of plucked bass and boom click drums gives way to complete vocal improvisation. "Back In The Day" is a beautiful tribute to Black music past, the songs they used to play before the days of commercial programming. The passion of brand new love provides the inspiration for "I Want You", a truly brilliant combination of R&B, scat vocals and dirty clavinet keys, while a police siren and atmospherics give way to a ragtime piano and muted horns on the single "Danger", a story of ghetto life both realistic and compulsive.
More musically exotic than much of her previous releases, 'Worldwide Underground' is stronger for that reason, and special mention must be made of producer and co-composer James Poyser, a man also responsible for many great Roots and Common records. Badu is an intelligent and accomplished artist and this latest album can only be described as thrilling. Recommended. |
