Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 03/03/08
Label: Motown / Universal

In 1997, from out of nowhere, Erykah Badu delivered one of the most significant albums of modern R&B. Alongside D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar", her sensually organic debut, "Baduizm", opened the door to the rootsy, jazz-inflected hip hop that became nu-soul, paving the way for Lauryn Hill, Jill Scott, India.Arie and Alicia Keys and establishing Badu as one of R&B's most inspired voices. A decade later, she's about to do it all again.

Followers of Badu's career could be forgiven for being at least mildly disappointed with everything that followed "Baduizm". "Mama's Gun", from 2000, and 2003's "Worldwide Underground", were both capable rather than inventive, genre-melding works of genius. By way of compensation then, it would be easier to list the elements of 20th century black music that don't make an appearance on "New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War" than to dissect and catalogue all the flavours that fuel its barrage of tripped-out sonic delights.

Call it sweet soul chaos or post-apocalyptic funk, at heart "New Amerykah" is a '70s R&B album that's been chopped-up, rejigged and layered with mind-bending vocals and otherworldly sounds. The Roy Ayers cover of the title track rolls out a vintage blaxploitation strut only to follow it with a hyper-futuristic one in the shape of "The Healer"'s minimalist bounce. "Me" starts life as a classic Badu shimmer and, like so much here, mutates into something completely different: abstract trumpet and vocal scatting.

Elsewhere, "My People" mixes Afro-beat with grimy electro, "Twinkle" does out and out sci-fi loveliness before mutating into a "Blade Runner"-esque diatribe against the degeneration of society and "That Hump" takes it back to 2am seduction for a bleary smooch through drug dependency. All in all, this is an incredibly complex record, mixing multiple moods and melodies into each song, Badu using multiple voices to tackle race, religion, addiction and the state of America today. Yet it's also amazingly accessible.

With hooks and grooves flying in from all angels, the net effect is that the confusion of parts coalesce to create a captivating stream of R&B consciousness. What the LP isn't is hugely commercial. It's telling that exceptional first single, "Honey", is included as a hidden track; next to the off-head sprawl of the rest of the album, its sunny ghetto slide is practically bubblegum. Instead "New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War" is an insane, obscure and exciting record of the kind that very few artists have the guts or imagination to make anymore. Brilliance may only strike Badu once a decade, but it's worth the wait.

    by Dan Gennoe