New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War | Erykah Badu

New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War | Erykah Badu | Brilliant Disc

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New Amerykah, Pt. ...

	New Amerykah, Pt. 1: 4th World War Erykah Badu Motown, 2008 average customer review:based on 151 reviews view larger image
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Love It!

Never owned an Erykah badu CD-- saw the video for Honey and was wowed. Bought the album on a whim, and I love it. 70's funk explosion greatness. My favorite album since Amy Winehouse, and it actually pushed Amy out of my heavy rotation!!

Brilliant Disc

When I first heard this disc I knew right away that the masses, including some of her most fervent fans, would be turned off by this off-kilter effort. Many of the one-star reviews here are a reflection of consumer taste rather than the quality of Ms. Badu's latest offering, which is a masterpiece, in my humble opinion. Admittedly, the album does take a few listens to warm up to but once these funky, astral tunes reveal themselves to your soul you cannot deny Erkyah's otherworldly talent and incomparable inventiveness. Stand-outs for me are The Healer, Me, Soldier, Master Teacther, Telephone, and Honey, of course. She laces her lyrics with Nation of Islam ethics, politics, and spirituality. Some artists are deep for the sake of being deep but Erykah is distinctively deep here, and nothing seems gratuitous or contrived. Many contemporary consumers cannot appreciate change or challenge themselves to listen something new. Erykah has shattered the mold by breaking free from the neosoul strait-jacket, creating a masterful blend of hip-hop, funk-jazz-soul inflected tunes. This is E.Badu's, "There's A Riot Goin On," one of the greatest funk albums of all time. Dismiss this album at your own peril!

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I do, Badu.

Wow! I think Erykah Badu has reached a new level. Everyone of her albums have been awesome, but this one seems to have an extra amount of self exploration and almost reckless abandon. It seems this album is not the most accessible, but the most rewarding. My favorite songs, The Healer, Me, The Cell, Twinkle, That Hump Honey, and the "Brides of the Funkenstein" throw back Amerykahn Promise.

An Imperfect Amerykah : Erykah now just a Shadow

As a fierce Badu loyalist (count me in amongst those small numbers that rate her Unplugged CD as one of the greatest albums of all time - in ANY genre), this album surprised me with its average-ness. Every Erykah record is an event worth waiting for. Most people just remember her 1997 debut "Baduizm" as her defining moment - but for true lovers of the neo soul movement, she has broken the mould time and again, especially on her "Worldwide Underground EP" (that album is also probably the only EP in neo-soul history that runs longer than most full-length albums of the genre). Erykah never cheats her listeners - always rewarding them with soulful music that clearly stands the test of time.

In that context, this album is perplexing. In fact, I would use the word 'album' very loosely. At best, this is a collection of samples and sounds. I have to hand it to her though - some of the samples here harken back to obscure recordings from the 1950s, and they all work well when they have to - but in terms of being a cohesive piece of work, this is by far the weakest Erykah Badu record. Listening to the meandering opening track, its as if the producers let the artist experiment in the studio with no direction whatsoever - in some instances this can work - remember the amazing wordplay of Lauryn Hill on her ad-lib "Unplugged" album? Here, everything seems ill-advised, and worse, unlistenable.

I never thought 'unlistenable' could ever be used to define an Erykah Badu record, but that you have it. Gone are those groovy beats and infectious choruses. Gone are the thought-provoking lyrics and songs that would sound amazing in concert. I love experimental music as much as anyone else, but this was really taking things too far. Lead single "Honey" is the most straight-forward thing here. If "Honey" is all you've heard so far and you want to know what the rest of the album sounds like - well, imagine it as a more lost and confused sounding version of that track, and you have the ultimate definition of what this album is all about.

On "Telephone", Badu comes close to the genius of "Worldwide Underground", but an odd misstep towards the end of the song ruins even that. On first play, I let this play all the way through, hoping for something to grab me. Having listened to this in random order about four times now, its clear that this is either a) a substandard recording or b) I have no musical taste. Either way, the bottom line is that this is an album I didn't care for. Two Stars for the album, and one extra star for Erykah's former glory.

For true masterworks of Neo-Soul, check out Maxwell's "Now", and the third album by Jill Scott. Also check out the underrated "What Am I Gonna Do" by 1974 chanteuse Gloria Scott.

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