Whatever happened to... Maxwell?

Have you seen this man?

"Kate Bush finally got hold of him for what he did to "This Woman's Work" and rightly slit his throat."

Sorry, but that's a beautiful version of a great song. He more than did it justice. New album's on the way apparently.

this is never coming out eh.

that snippet that he put on his myspace a few months ago was pretty nice/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P1LjrMYeuJI

there was a feature on him in vibe the other month. didnt really read it properly but he has a totally new look (non pretty boy) and record co. troubles seem to be the reason he still hasnt put anything out.

This ;)

Geir you're a sick fuck

New album BlackSummer'sNight Pt. 1 (of 3) out July 7th, 2009

Album Preview: Maxwell "Black Summers' Night"

It's been eight years since Maxwell released "Now". For most artists, that's a career suicide to be in a hiatus for almost a decade. For Maxwell, all the time away ever did was increase the buzz for the enigma's comeback album. An appearance at the BET Awards last year only heightened the buzz for a Maxwell return and finally it will happen.

The return of Maxwell. Are you ready?

Now, after an extended break, Maxwell is set to return with not one, but a trilogy of albums. The title of the release is "Black Summers' Night" and will drop in three different installments with "Black" being the first to be released this summer. There is no scheduled release date for the other two installments but BET.com did get word that the songs are recorded and completed for both "Summer" and "Night".

BET.com got a chance to hear the first album of the "Black Summers' Night" and for those concerned that Maxwell may have changed his sound, fear not, Maxwell has not lost a step. Before we go any further, it is imperative to note that there are no Lil Wayne guest appearances, no Kanye West production and no Autotune. It is safe to say that the lush arrangements and vocals that have made many a lady heart melt is still intact.

Many of the songs feature several movements and some stretches of noteworthy instrumentation. Sure, Maxwell is known for his impressive vocal talents, but the production on this outing masterfully brings the album full circle.

Scheduled for an early July release date, "Black" features songs stuffed full of emotion and energy. Brooding love jams, funky basslines and Maxwell begging, pleading, loving and crooning his way through the 9 song release. Although we cannot release song titles as of yet, just know that it is indeed vintage Maxwell.

Maxwell has also decided to keep it short and sweet with 9 offerings that will surely leave the listener yearning for more.

The first single and video will be "Pretty Wings" which will also debut exclusively on 106 & Park next Tuesday, April 28. Maxwell will also be holding a press conference after his 106 appearance to announce further details regarding his upcoming album and a tour that will begin in June.

Maxwell has also been the first artist confirmed to perform at this year's BET Awards.

tracklist:

bad habits

cold

pretty wings

love you

stop the world

fistful of tears

help somebody

playing possum

phoenix rise

cant wait. tho i dont expect all 3 albums.

Single is on iTunes now:

http://i42.tinypic.com/rhu2d3.jpg

There was a great presentation from Jason King at EMP basically wondering when the dude would stop screwing around with those three albums so hey, a glimmer of light.

The funniest part of that presentation was King reading a Maxwell EMO BLOG ENTRY with the "Whenever Wherever Whatever" video playing in the background.

I've never really been a huge Maxwell fan, but I'm totally stoked for this.

Hahaha, yes on the blog thing. A perfect combination.

I also liked Jason saying "I see him jogging around my neighborhood, he hasn't disappeared!"

I see a mention of Rockwell upthread and can't help but wonder if there is anyone or anything that has mentioned what he is up to. The obvious paranoia in some of his stuff suggests he might make for a good interview.

http://twitter.com/wgordy

There's kind of a resemblance there, no?

Or nevermind, I am a moron. Not the same person.

this is superdope

In a word, yeah.

i saw him live back in October 01, that shit was off the hook. been looking forward to another record by him since about then. now we just need d'angelo to release another album and i will be happy for another 10 years or so.....

this is great

Heard Donnie Simpson interview him recently. He mostly came across real normal and down-to-earth. Of course, Donnie did not really follow-up on Maxwell's non-detailed answer to what he's been doing all this time. He noted that a relationship he was in did not work out, and that he's been traveling alot. They were both busy complimenting one another.

cant wait to hear this but im surprised no one had mentioned the rumors around why they were having trouble marketing dude

btw urban hang suite is easy top ten of the 90s record to me

you mean the gay rumors?

Heads up:

Soul Master Maxwell

Appears on KCRW TOMORROW, May 13 for a Rare Interview

KCRW DJ Garth Trinidad will host the long awaited return of the soul icon at 9pm PST.

KCRW DJ Garth Trinidad will host the long-awaited return of soul icon Maxwell live this Wednesday, May 13 at 9pm PST. Expect classic Maxwell tunes along with an interview and some tracks from his forthcoming album "BLACKsummer's Night." This is Maxwell’s first appearance on the Santa Monica-based public radio station. The session will air live on KCRW 89.9 FM and on KCRW.com.

i like pretty wings but something about the melody is every so slightly throwaway by his usual standards. plus the chorus makes me think of old sanitary pad tv adverts.

hey, it's got gamelan in it!

http://www.rap-up.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/maxwell-bsn-cover.jpg

1. Bad Habits 5:52
2. Cold 4:01
3. Pretty Wings 5:09
4. Help Somebody 4:01
5. Stop The World 3:55
6. Love You 3:35
7. Fistful Of Tears 3:40
8. Playing Possum 4:22
9. Phoenix Rise 2:41

wow is that short

37 minsish? Trad LP length....

I am completely in love with this song.

otm

Like, single of the year.

^^ possibly yeah

basically the first time i heard it i was just getting home and i had to park and just sit and listen to it until it was over.

http://soulbounce.com/soul/blog_images/nas_maxwell_twitter.jpg
http://soulbounce.com/soul/blog_images/nas_maxwell_whiteparty.jpg
http://soulbounce.com/soul/blog_images/nas_maxwell_ladies.jpg

Wow.

We holdin up unopened bottles, empty glasses, unlit cigars and posin with clothed girls.

how many cliches in one picture.
this does indeed look very staged.

We holdin up unopened bottles, empty glasses, unlit cigars and posin with clothed girls.

i love those pictures. it's the potential in them.

the all-white wardrobery is killing me... it's like, are they getting ready for a diddy shindig?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifMLXQOoV7c

Well shit. This might be even better than "Pretty Wings".

oh my, this is just going to be the greatest album ever.

Love Maxwell. Love the new tracks, thx fr posting

Wow @ "Bad Habits."

dudes still got it

max! well...

just downloaded this...so excited

this is amazing but way too short!

Grabbing it now. I haven't even listened to Bad Habits or Pretty Wings yet, so I could experience it as a whole.

"love you" is a force

That's my favorite early on, too.

it's so good and it just...ends

this is still downloading so I'm listening to Embrya instead

After three listens, I like it, but I'm kinda disappointed all the same. I feel like none of the tracks I hadn't heard quite live up to the promise of "Pretty Wings" and "Bad Habits". Oddly enough, I think the instrumental outro might be my favorite thing other than those two songs. It's better than Urban Hang Suite, which devolves into smooth jazz a lot of the time, but I don't think I like it as much as Embrya. I know trying to rank it at this point (or maybe at any point) is stupid, but whatever. On the other hand, I've listened to it thrice in two days, so he's doing something right.

Looks like I'll be seeing him live tomorrow night if things go according to plan. Will report back.

same here i think. i like all the songs here, even really like or LOVE at least three of them, but its 37 minute runtime feels too slight to really knock me over. a few of the songs feel half-finished, and i think the album suffers on the whole as a result. i guess after hearing the first couple advance tracks i was expecting something erykah-level, but the rest just seems good right now. not necessarily a bad thing, and still one of the best r&b albums of the year so far

xpost sweeeet

It's better than Urban Hang Suite

uh

i like it a lot but no way -- that record is A+++++++ classic top ten of 90s material

instrumental outro is DOPE

(on the new one)

I don't hugely care for Urban Hang Suite tbh. Embrya beats the shit out of it imo.

cant imagine not caring for 'if the cops come knocking' or 'ascension' or 'dance with me.' the album is a pinnacle of R&B

I could pretty much take "Ascension" and "Whenever Wherever Whatever" and leave the rest.

not liking dance with me shd be punishable by death fwiw

i do like embrya, but .. yeah theres nothing on it like 'dance with me' - the start-stop instrument explosions midway thru that song are just XD

gawdammit I want to make love to him

"I want to know why everyone's clothes still on."

whatever happened to...remy shand?

still think "Bad Habits" and "Pretty Wings" are far and away the best songs, but "Cold" and "Stop the World" and "Fistful of Tears" are emerging as really good second-tier songs

damnit, all the vids are getting taken down. Anyone have a fresh link?

nevermind, there's a bunch on youtube

"pretty wings" is easily the best thing on here (but then again it's probably my favorite song of the year), but "bad habits" and "love you" are excellent as well. the rest are really vanilla, but the best kind of vanilla, like gourmet vanilla ice cream

no

good essay on this from andy k btw guys -- check amg

this is a dope album, i don't know why people are underwhelmed. 'help somebody' is O_O

it's an amazing sounding record, and really dynamic (southall should be shitting himself).

such a great balance between looseness/arrangement too. whatever drum programming there is is really subtle and blends well with the live stuff. anyone else getting a sly-circa-'fresh' vibe?

oh shit, that's chris dave on drums

I need to stop being slack and get this thing.

yall should check deej's p4k review that went up today

i really dig the whole thing but pretty wings is head and shoulders above the rest, and above like 90% of songs ive heard this year

i like the final track and "cold" best i think, but the whole record is dope. going to see him live in pgh on saturday night, i saw him on his last tour in 01 and he was ridiculously awesome.

this is a dope album, i don't know why people are underwhelmed. 'help somebody' is O_O

― Ømår Littel (Jordan), Friday, July 10, 2009 11:10 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is my first introduction to Maxwell (sure i heard of him but never heard his albums)
starts rather weak (first 2 tracks) but Pretty Wings and Help Somebody are equally great, rest of it is ok.

He killed it in Pittsburgh this weekend, he had an awesome11 piece band and they played for 1.5 hours. Time flew by, I could have listened to them all night. Highlights were "Cold", "This Woman's Work", and " Acension" but there were really no duds. Go see him at any cost.

i've got a killer white label house remix of one of his songs. has a prince remix on the back. the song has the lyrics "you'll never now this, but there's no one quite like, quite like you/her?" "if i had to do it over, if i had to do it again, i woulda ....., this would have never began"

will swap the remix for the original

wow, if i had cared to google those lyrics years ago, this wouldn't have been such a mystery. song is called No One, this remix rules.

discogs says it could be the Roy Davis Jr. mix.

sorry for the mini-hijack but this track has been bugging me for a while. it's this 12" http://www.discogs.com/Prince-Maxwell-Sexy-If-I/release/1263990 but mine doesn't have the sticker, just a stamp that says maxwell on one side and prince on the other.

duh, of course it's on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4kXAmKibWs

ok this is awesome

had never heard of this guy before

the runtime of this album coincides to within seconds of my daily run

Newsweek interview from the other day.

You know, I heard "Pretty Wings" is being used as a wedding song....I'm not sure why a song about breaking up with someone would be used in someone's nuptials. But I'm happy to be of assistance. (Laughs)

Also:

The entire album went into mastering and it kinda was smoothed out. So we took away the brightness. We tried to make it feel like a lot of rock music right now. Like the Fleet Foxes and Bat for Lashes. Even Grizzly Bear has a vibe that I like a lot, too. This "in the room" feel where, it's like, "We don't really have that much money. The mics aren't really that expensive."

...you made that up. god please

just checked, nope

i dont really think thats a weird thing to say. hes just talking abt the quality/aesthetic of the engineering / mastering. i kind of found it a lil underwhelming at first personally, but it grew on me.

yeah i was being dramatic and i'm not trying to feign any distaste for indie music in general - i just don't like those bands - but i just thought it was a weird reference. the sort of minimal, "live" production put me off at first too and made it hard for me to care about one album cut over another, but i at least like every track on the album and "pretty wings" is still probably my favorite song of the year. i kinda hope he goes all out on the next one, though, production-wise

I finally picked up this album yesterday, I love it. The production won me over from the start, but then I like the production on the records he's referencing so maybe I should just STFU.

why have i not done this yet?!?!?!

i like the way he comes across in that interview personally:

After eight years away from the game, did you expect to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart?
It's a good feeling to know you're not irrelevant! Yeah, look, I'm always pleasantly surprised. I don't walk around drinking my Kool-Aid, thinking I'm the ish of all times. You just cross your fingers and hope. I'm just grateful people went out and bought the album. They could have gone online, found a torrent, and stolen it!

I read that you were unsure of your relevance after the rise of Auto-Tune. What do you think now?
I'm always careful with the way I answer on this. I don't want to be the guy who's like the older guy. (In a wheezy voice) When we were doing it we were doing it like this. (Laughs) Because when I was starting out, there were people saying the same old ish about me. Every generation has the right to graffiti-stamp the era the way they so desire. What some see as a gimmick is what they see as their calling card.

i guess it's important for us to still shit our pants every time a black person namedrops an indie rock band, though.

i liked that interview a lot too!

and we don't have to prolong this but like i said, i was just disappointed(?) that maxwell liked fleet foxes, not trying to enforce some kinda silly racial taste rules

he didnt even say he liked them, he said he wanted a live production sound like they had

alrighty

good interview.

"Kate Bush finally got hold of him for what he did to "This Woman's Work" and rightly slit his throat."

Sorry, but that's a beautiful version of a great song. He more than did it justice. New album's on the way apparently.

it's nice but it's a pointless version because it sounds almost note-for-note identical to the original. I wish he'd done something else with the arrangement.

he sounds like a really great guy in that interview

would love to smoke a bowl w/ him and listen to fleet foxes

xxp: I think the note-for-noteness is v. much the point. It's the fact that it's a dude singing it and giving it a great performance in her register that makes it. Btw he tore the fucking house down with it when I saw him.

he sounds like a really great guy in that interview

― max, Sunday, July 26, 2009 12:08 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

totally otm

Bad Habits is really really dope.

^^^

My favorite is "Help Somebody," whose intro sounds like Portishead.

the ending of bad habits is >>>

is it just me or have his lyrics gotten a bit cornier?

i love whatever instrument it is thats used at the start of pretty wings.

Buying this on way home from work, Quite Stoked. His Twitter is a wonder of capitalisation:

MASHANTUCKET.. sacred INDIAN grounds in CT.. thank u for coming to the SHOW u were AMAZING to US at FOXWOODS. i pray we did u half as RIGHT
11:51 AM Jul 26th from web

this song playing possum is amazing.

^^^ Am very tempted to compare it to food. Am not sure what food. But it would taste tremendous.

possum, perhaps?

pretty wings
is
so
fucking
good.

blared it so many times in the shop today, like just kept replaying it, i'm pretty sure customers were confused

shame about the rest of the album, amirite?

Well, no.

maybe when i'm in the mood for BORING...

Listened to this album about 10 times the last few days. "help somebody" is my fav right now but the first 4 tracks might be his strongest consecutive tracks out of all his albums. Them plus the UR sounding last track are worth the price of admission, the other 4 songs are good too, though!

interesting reading him talk about radiohead; the single totally starts out like one of the clanky quiet bits on kid a (or mmm amnesiac), like treefingers?, maybe?

just had my first listen and am into this

see, i don't like help somebody! I think the whole album might be a slow burner with different tracks clicking for different folks.

it's a Good Song but idk why there's such a fuss about it one way or another, especially considering the track it immediately follows

'help somebody' is dope, u dudes just havent come around to it yet

the only one i skip is 'stop the world'

maybe i havent come around to it yet either, but it feels undercomposed

I think it's my favorite album track as of now.

the dj quik album had this same effect to iirc

i dunno i dont think its the same thing though. with maxwell its just that there are so many details & compositional crevices for u to discover
which is why 'stop the world' kinda doesnt work for me -- i dont feel like there's anything composed about it, its just so loose & unmoored

quik on the other hand was more pushing further & further your tolerance for weird

I kinda meant more that different people drastically gravitate to and away from different songs; no general consensus as to THE BEST or THE WORST

yah agreed w that

usually a sign of a good album

this albums grown on me but it doesnt seem quite as well written/developed as his stuff usually is.

ha, i just had the listen of 'Help Somebody' that opened it up to me. Itunes informs me it was #6 that did the trick.

i'm not as high on "pretty wings" as the rest of yall but it sounds SO GOOD on the radio. it's so different than anything being played, even with stuff like keyshia cole. i'm as big a backer of autotune & shit like "every girl" but i think we're gonna be alright if something like "pretty wings" can break to the top still.

"pretty wings" is really good but when he goes into his slurry soul-man vamps it sounds like "pret-ty WANGS" and i laugh every time...

me too! (as evidenced by my display name)

haha i didn't even notice that.

'pretty wings' sounded so slight when i first heard it, but is in fact...the opposite of slight. those quiet windchimes doing their thing so subtly. the entire album is secret sumptuousness.

everyone i work w/ loves it but the joke going around the ballpark is that the song is secretly called 'chicken wings.' big lols

"Help Somebody" and "Stop The World" are fantastic.

i like this record a lot — the second half sounds way less composed/arranged, and i kind of wish at least one of those was stretched out a bit more — but it's hard not to like it, still. particularly when he asks the girl to call the president. that is sweet.

i love pretty wings but he sings in *just* high enough of a register that i cant quite hit all the notes when i sign along, its pretty annoying

god if i judged R&B based on what notes i can actually (pretend to) hit!

sudden weird insight into why people like records w/bad singing

Haha

Seein' him and Common at the Hollywood Bowl tonight.

Pretty f-in' pumped.

ive heard incredible things about his live show

Expect lots of wangs, tbh.

This might be my album of the year.

yeah man its up there for me too

ive heard incredible things at his live show

def in my top 3

Got drunk. Wish I hadn't. Made for an interesting morning. Now at office, wishing I were still at Hollywood Bowl, last night, before the wine started flowing. Ugh.

Uh...but was the show any good?

The show was phenomenal. Highly recommended.

This record is amazing but I have next to nothing to actually say about it. Still, this is the shit.

50 quid for a london ticket.

i cant go :(

the musicians on this album are so fuckin good

like it is such a pleasure to hear session dudes in a non-sucky context just doing their thing

I feel as if this is the most slept-on universally acclaimed album of 2009.

yeah i think the length and the fact that it's an unusually understated "comeback" album cause that, tho i can't decide myself whether it's more "great" or more "really fucking good"

I never felt like Maxwell's critical rep was that high, though. Certainly not compared to D'Angelo or Badu.

im still not sure what happened to his sense of melody (sounds much more radio R&B influenced) here but this album is great. didnt blow me away as a 'comeback' album when i first got it, but its a solid grower. and yeah, the playing on it is fantastic.

everyone i work w/ loves it but the joke going around the ballpark is that the song is secretly called 'chicken wings.' big lols

― butthurt (deej), Monday, August 17, 2009 4:35 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol forgot abt this

this album doesn't have a sense of melody?

wtf

...?

Another argument for having year-end polls in like August of the following year.

i love whatever instrument it is thats used at the start of pretty wings.

i believe it's an instrument called the gamelan, from indonesia (where i'm living) they're kinda like tuned mini gongs, usually grouped in 8 or 10 and lined up in a scale. it sounds to me like maybe it's the javanese brand of gamelan (as opposed to balinese or sundanese, which have slightly different microtunings) me and some indonesian rap dudes i hang with have sat around several times trying to determine if it's a loop from a gamalan cd or a producer playing it on a sampler - on one hand that intro sounds very much like the instruments are generally played live to me, but listening closely i can hear melody lines with just one gamelan playing coming in and out later on in the song, so i guess it's probably just samples. but i'm thinking the guy playing them has heard a gamelan record or two, he's got the style down well enough to have fooled me at first, and i listen to shitloads of gamelan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZAumC4JP3o&feature=related

man pretty wings is just so damn... pretty! and serious staying power, in this age of easy all-you-can-listen-to downloads 99.9% of everything i download only gets a single listen from me, maybe 2 if it's my favorite artist or something... but this one keeps popping up on my stereo a LOT. hell, i just listened to it 4 times in a row reading this thread!

just re-listened to this recently. the first four tracks are so amazing and i think "why don't i listen to this all the time?!" then the second half is like "oh yeah, huh".

i'm so ready for a new album from this band, but it seems like his momentum has slowed down a bit?

isnt this meant to be part of a trilogy?

"this album doesn't have a sense of melody?"

his sense of melody has *changed*, not disappeared.

iirc he had 3 albums' worth of material in the can over the long break, although I dunno if that means the other albums are totally done or if he's continued to work on them. the 2nd was initially going to be released less than a year later, but i think the 1st did so well that he's just riding it out with as many singles and tours as he can and it looks like the next one's pushed back to 2011.

i haven't listened enough to his earlier stuff to really compare, but the last album's melodies didn't sound especially different from before, or closer to other stuff on the radio.

if anything, i feel like there's ~more~ of a focus on melody than on his previous albums

^^^ yup

I listened to the album this morning thanks to this thread, and, yup: it's still my favorite album of 2009.

"pretty wings" is really good but when he goes into his slurry soul-man vamps it sounds like "pret-ty WANGS" and i laugh every time...

― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Monday, August 17, 2009 1:07 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

Whatever happened to....Samwell?

http://answers.encyclopedia.com/question/did-robert-maxwell-die-296910.html

evan r. linked this to me on twitter just now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62c2oTTSLJM

How're those other two records coming, Maxwell? And don't pretend you don't follow this thread.

Maxwell duets w/Alicia Keys on her new LP... http://stupiddope.com/2012/11/20/alicia-keys-maxwell-fire-we-make-new-music/

god urban hang suite is ridic

hear hear

embrya is the greatest thing in the world

i've literally only listened to maxwell over the past few days...

i'm digging embrya but now is a bit better i think. the criticism that people levy against voodoo (too focused on grooves at the expense of songs) is something that i think actually applies to embrya to an extent, but that's still a raw record. "drowndeep" def has to be one of his best songs.

there's a dearth of writing about maxwell... i want to read a fucking tome about these albums right now

i hope when he comes back he goes thru w/ that full albums tour

I endured a Maxwell phase in September and came away thinking Embrya was my least favorite, although "Cococure" is one hell of an aural bask.

Now's "Changed" is my new favorite.

i've listened to "whenever, wherever, water" like 40 times in the last 24 hours

yeah i went through a phase late summer where all i listened to on the way to work every day was "drowndeep: hula"

i wrote an extended thing about "pretty wings" four years ago but no way would i show that to anyone

now, you guys

i mean you knew it and i knew it but for some reason i never listen to this record

i'd love to read anything about pretty wings tbh

nope, i wrote it in 2009 and i spend way too much time shitting on maxwell's pre-blacksummer'snight stuff (why) and sade (what was wrong w/ me)

now indeed

think i was trying to situate "pretty wings" as kind of new, "realer" sonic territory for him but he had already flexed plenty with now so whatever @ 21-year-old me

http://selinadee.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/537924_10151154448130997_2001650783_n.jpg

stoked cant lie

aaahhhhhhhhhhh hyped

oh, he says that's a PARTIAL tracklist. hmmmm. does that mean he's still recording more songs?

i love maxwell so much goddammit

what if that's the album cover

sticky note sadeness

passiveaggressivenotes4ursoul

summers' apparently coming out "later summer early fall" which uhhh hope it happens. also a duet ep with alicia?

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/1569258/maxwell-talks-new-summers-album-upcoming-duets-ep-with-alicia

man was that clip of "gods" ever posted in this thread?

https://soundcloud.com/the-known-unknown/gods-1-13-audio-teaser-rough

sounds incredible

so good.

only on my most recent listen to blacksummers'night did i realize how great the drumming is???

This guy is one of the all-time greats. Hope the next album is the one where he finally gets recognized as such outside of the usual neo-soul circles.

Actually, that's greedy. I just hope the album gets released soon.

I listened to Now this morning while showering; it convinced me I've never gotten tired of "Lifetime."

re drums - Help Somebody (the final minute!) and Bad Habits especially.

also the end of the "phoenix rise" instrumental

album is a treasure trove of great outros

man was that clip of "gods" ever posted in this thread?

https://soundcloud.com/the-known-unknown/gods-1-13-audio-teaser-rough

sounds incredible

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, July 11, 2013 4:22 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

yeah what the fuck !!

But you know, it's gonna be more hi-fi. Do you know Sam Smith? That "Latch" song, man. Not that we’re doing full Disclosure, but for me one of the ways God has been so good is I work with the people who are the best on some level.

no idea how to interpret those sentences but they sound neat

my interpretaton is he's going to zhuzh it up a bit

"Latch" yes, not "full Disclosure" right on. He knows exactly how much we can stand of them.

"gods" is astounding wtf

right?

damn this is gorgeous. Reminds me a bit of T T D'Arby.

Did anybody ever revisit this?
http://www.villagevoice.com/1998-07-14/music/he-wants-you-to-want-him/

But Sade's band always kind of sucked. She made the material interesting.

disqualified

UHS is my least favorite Maxwell; it's often boring. But Hampton's D'Angelo worship leads her to batshit conclusions.

only on my most recent listen to blacksummers'night did i realize how great the drumming is???

the best. i hope chris dave is all over the new one. shout out to this fill on 'stop the world':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g1oIfh75cI&feature=player_detailpage#t=164s

and his presence on that jose james record is a major reason to check it out.

yahhh, Embrya is my favorite Maxwell album and *ducks* it's a better album than D had released at that point, although dream was right that everyone in D'Angelo's lane should have been fearful of Voodoo

i'd agree that embrya is better than brown sugar *also ducks*

that doesn't seem too controversial?

Brown Sugar is way more ::canon::

a lot of people are actively bored by embrya iirc. i'd take issue with my own position actually if it were a few years ago

I generally Maxwell >> D'Angelo but they're doing different things so I dunno

i feel like they were easier to compare in say '96 when there was only brown sugar and urban hang suite. both embrya and voodoo are so elsewhere.

and of course now and blacksummers'night are extremely distinct from both each other and his starting point

yeah otm

agreed, i don't think of MWell and Dlo as similar artists at all, any more so than Ke$ha and TSwift are

i think theyre more similar than that

it made sense to compare them at a time when they were merely 'male R&B singers who were more like each other than either was like R. Kelly,' but that's long since been a useless and reductive way to think about either.

http://instagram.com/maxwell

his life is pretty much like i imagined it

though with more bathrooms

Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite Accessories and Indoor Plumbing

http://distilleryimage10.s3.amazonaws.com/c393d5c60e2811e3862522000a1f9c96_7.jpg

maxwell
18 hours ago
oh yeah.. this, right.. well get ready!

maxwell not dressing his age is sadface

i heard "pretty wings" (2009's best single??) on the radio two days ago and wondered abt this project

My most anticipated album of the year. Can. Not. Wait.

Also that instagram account is very uncomfortable to me. Feels like a window into his private life we shouldn't be seeing. Doubly weird since my understanding was Maxwell was a quiet guy who enjoyed his privacy.

really anticipating too. that image seems to suggest it's called... "gods summers"? what?

Summers' is the title of the album (ugh i know) and "Gods" is the single he released a snippet of at the top of the year

...what is that stray possessive apostrophe doing, it's going to do my head in

also might it not have been a good idea to release this album in the summer perhaps

Even by the standards of three-part albums that may never be completed, the nomenclature of this project is truly atrocious. But I can get behind simply calling this album Summers. It'd be sillier if he expected it be called blackSUMMERS'night, which would mean it's pronounced exactly the same way as his previous album (as well as his next album). I wonder, though, if this means we're supposed to retroactively call the last album just Black? It's not even fun to think about.

It'd be sillier if he expected it be called blackSUMMERS'night

lol this was the plan

Kanye was a real trendsetter with putting out summer-themed projects as late in the year as possible

Based on his Twitter/Instagram, he likes Sam Smith and "Latch" a lot so I'm expecting/hoping (the latter is probably more the case) the rest of his new songs and his direction to be a lot of Disclosure, etc.-sounding shit, and I'm fine with that.

i was up for that pre-instagram when i still thought he was listening to them wearing a white linen suit, now i just dunno tbh

btw, he actually performed a full version of "Gods" last month

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb1UodrODmY

I'm deliberately avoiding listening to this because I want to hear the finished studio version first

Kanye was a real trendsetter with putting out summer-themed projects as late in the year as possible

Nah, Sly Stone put out "Hot Fun In The Summertime" after their Woodstock performance, which was the third week in August.

Just had a great interview with Maxwell about his creative process and how important time and patience is to that process. Album is done and he thinks it's coming out this year for sure (we'll see), but he says for now he's just enjoying sitting on it, keeping it his, savoring it before anybody else gets to judge it. Just a thoughtful, thoughtful dude. Also more honest than most artists about caring what critics think. He wants to top himself, wants to blow people away with this record, and is quite confident he will since he took the time to do it right.

Cool. :)

that's exciting

that's so cool. is he as funny irl as he seems?

http://cdn.gossiponthis.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/drakemaxwellgame.jpg?6a06a5

Hahaha; I think I'm more discerning about what's funny than Drake is, but he's smart and sweet and he speaks in good, passionate quotes, which is all you can ask from somebody when you are interviewing them. Really hard not to admire the guy's conviction, and the way he understands he has this unique capital wrt his label and his fan base, and how he takes advantage of it.

not to usurp evan here but i talked to big homie http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/maxwell-returns-to-the-road-to-prep-cyborg-y-new-album-20140530

some bits about his album in there

he was incredibly nice and generous... he started the interview by going on about how honored he was to be talking to someone from rolling stone

tbh i think he was high

he has such a passion for new music, it's pretty dope... i had to cut a bunch of the interview where he just talked at length about new shit he likes

he's a big frank ocean stan :-B

Cool. I am glad that he's doing a secondary market tour. I look forward to hearing some new material at the show.

Nice interview

lol @ hype machine

Haha. I was waiting for someone to mention that.

that part is adorable.

Anybody else caught the tour yet? I saw the opening show last weekend, and it was glorious. No new material, which makes me question progress on the album, but all the old stuff sounded great, and his band was sensational

any word on the release yet?

i like when artists preview unreleased material live, but when really big artists don't i get it. it was kinda badass that Beyonce didn't perform anything from the last album all last year when she was touring before it dropped.

Yeah, and generally crowds don't like to hear too much new material beyond one or two "special" new songs. But I thought the point of this tour was to drum up excitement for the upcoming album, and I left feeling like the new LP was actually further away than when I arrived

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10440862_972293896131540_5441593982666540049_n.jpg

https://twitter.com/_MAXWELL_/status/545656579107078144

was hoping d'angelo would cause a chain reaction

An advent calendar of the new Outkast, the new Maxwell, Detox...

winter 2015? not exactly around the corner...

BlackWintersNight etc

the first 3 months of the year are winter

he's leaving it ambiguous

The first day of winter is two days from now, but that's probably wishful thinking for an album drop.

Just a reminder... Embrya is fucking amazing.

ha hi5. I just went on another maxwell binge over the last week

Every time this thread gets bumped I get false hope.

same

Embrya is my least favorite of his albums but it doesn't stop me from singing CO.CO.CUUUUUUURRE to myself once a week.

so luxurious

Every time this thread gets bumped I get false hope.

― The Reverend, Tuesday, June 9, 2015 1:08 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

AAAAHHHHH I got the real rush of excitement this time

Sorry for the false alarm. I was just really feeling "Drowndeep:Hula" when I revived.

At this point, I wish he had a Questlove-esque PR hype man on his side, anything to give us a glimmer of (false) hope but the occasional blips he posts on Twitter, etc. are enough I guess

Every time this thread gets bumped I get false hope.

― The Reverend, Tuesday, June 9, 2015 1:08 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same

― brimstead, Monday, June 8, 2015 8:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

AAAAHHHHH I got the real rush of excitement this time

― lex pretend, Tuesday, June 9, 2015 2:48 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same

I played a bunch of Maxwell on a satellite jukebox in a roadhouse bar last night, and amazingly everybody else seemed to enjoy it, too

a feat with sade ?

https://twitter.com/RiggdUp/status/596163093878542336

niiiiiiiiiiiiice

We'll see. If he "knocked it out" at the same time as the last one, it's 6 years old. Why would it have not come out by now?

He's Axl Rosing this shit.

Don't mean to fill anyone with false hope, but he has been posting snippets on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/p/88tQsKRjHJ
https://instagram.com/p/899yPeRjCy
https://instagram.com/p/9UI60PRjHI
https://instagram.com/p/9T787rxjM9

yeah he just posted another one tonight i guess i'll try and not get excited about this

https://instagram.com/p/9w1bcFRjBd

Snippets are generally terrible. Maxwell snippets are fucking maddening because all five of these sound fine as hell.

Should we just go ahead an expect a late night drop in December, or is that trend played out?

Who cares, just release the damn album.

(which he seems to be gearing up to do!)

i would be surprised if they surprise dropped because the last record hit big with its first two singles and it just seems like the traditional timeline might work for an artist w/ his fanbase, but maybe it will be a d'angelo type thing where people close to him realize the record is done and push to just get out before it ends up being another 2 years without anything

I tell you what, it'd really make this fourth quarter of 2015 pretty fan fucking tastic if he did release it. All my favorites will literally have been released within days of each other.

But I'm getting excited and way ahead of myself.

http://www.ticketmaster.com/artist/778926
Maxwell and Nas at Barclays in BK, $85 nosebleeds

whole show better be like

http://soulbounce.com/soul/wp-content/uploads/blog_images/nas_maxwell_ladies.jpg

i love "no one else in the room," very slept on record

he's been hinting very heavily on instagram and twitter that the album is very imminent but, you know

the album's been imminent for longer than instagram has existed

come on maxwell drop it on christmas

https://twitter.com/_MAXWELL_/status/677508236518510592
https://twitter.com/_MAXWELL_/status/677547421048700929

but, you know

every clip he's posted on instagram recently has sounded amazing

i really hope the full version of "gods" is on there i listened to the demo like 100 times the other day

Beyonce in '13
D'Angelo in '14
Maxwell in '15....?

i've kinda given up hope on there being any big surprise album this December, can't imagine someone doing it on Christmas day or later. it was nice to imagine Kanye or Frank or somebody would keep the nascent tradition going, though.

iwanttobelieve.jpg

given that his core audience is the over 40 crowd i don't think it makes much sense for maxwell to just drop the album out of nowhere -- it didn't really do much for d'angelo commercially if you figure their audiences roughly overlap. d'angelo's people did it that way so the album would finally just exist in the world and i suppose you could apply the same logic to maxwell but i feel like the label can probably get it out of him in a relatively standard fashion.

i guess it was 5 years ago at this point but "pretty wings" and "bad habits" were pretty big hits, if i were them i'd just fire a single off and see if they can roll it out the normal way

i've kinda given up hope on there being any big surprise album this December, can't imagine someone doing it on Christmas day or later. it was nice to imagine Kanye or Frank or somebody would keep the nascent tradition going, though.

― i got a really big steen, and they need some really big zings (some dude)

Pusha T.

he said "big surprise album"

i've kinda given up hope on there being any big surprise album this December, can't imagine someone doing it on Christmas day or later. it was nice to imagine Kanye or Frank or somebody would keep the nascent tradition going, though.

can't tell whether this is supreme rihanna shade or actually forgetting her; checking her fan fora over the past week has been extremely entertaining

rihanna album never coming out

hey Rihanna is "somebody," in every sense

i always read this thread title aloud in the alicia keys "can i speak to...michael?" voice btw

"so what you do?"

PRETEND LIKE IM GONNA DROP ALBUMs MOSTLY IDK

"oh word."

[SILENCE, COUGH]

"yeah that's interesting."

he retweeted this tweet saying his album comes out in the summer....... https://twitter.com/SoulBounce/status/696104894248443908

first single is apparently called "lake by the ocean"

As previewed here: https://www.instagram.com/p/9UI60PRjHI/

single cover & snippet https://twitter.com/_MAXWELL_/status/706157523821264896

12 seconds worth!

maxwell is not meant to be listened to in 12-second snippets -_-

Say it again for the people in the back.

god help me but im operating under the assumption this is happening imminently https://twitter.com/_maxwell_/status/707058551345299457

It's probably my most anticipated release of the year.

does that mean the album or the single?

"lake by the ocean" is the single but i assume the album would follow

i'm still blocked :(

he's saying the single is out this week https://twitter.com/_MAXWELL_/status/716997798714089472

Yessss! I was just immersing myself (that's the only way to properly describe it) in Embrya last night.

new album is out july 1

https://twitter.com/_MAXWELL_/status/718288719262978048

Already psyched to hear blacksummers'NIGHT around this time next decade.

well he says in that tweet its out july 1 so

Nah, that's blackSUMMERS'night.

ha whoops

There's a video of him on his Facebook page of him listening to the new single and it's the most awkward thing.

this song is great

god i'm so excited

yeah pumped 4 this

yessss

wait is the new single out bc i'm not going to have my experience of it be a facebook video of him listening to it

yeah its out

its on spotify

this sounds effortless

oh my god this is gorgeous

between maxwell, tweet and king it's shaping up to be a great year for old people soul vibes

man the finale. I am floored.

yesss

s/o to the hi hat lick at :50

always so understated but so perfect

https://youtu.be/9nJkGH80suo

Man, this has been a long time coming!

First of all, I'm really happy that this thing is actually happening. Maxwell has meant so much to me throughout my adult life. In fact, it's not much of a stretch to say that his music is part of what shaped me into an adult to begin with.

Onto the song. . . It's just master craftsmanship. Listening to his new music has always given me the impression of watching a sculptor at work. You're not really sure where all the movements and little, seemingly insignificant, iterations will fit into the larger whole until the piece is finished. I love that. It's so layered and thoughtful, without sounding overcooked. Just top gear, all the way.

Definitely my most anticipated release of the year.

POO: Maxwell vs DNCE

CHRIST, THIS IS GORGEOUS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2a85v0yxoY

yes

mmmmm that coda

Visuals for lake by the ocean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsSu0bRZEHM

WE WILL CLIMAX WITH REASON

[fans self] damn that is game

the arrangements on these songs are wild

there's so much detail yet it's so coherently woven into a composed surface that it sort of feels like watching sand shift

also psyched for this record bc i need new records with amazing drumming in my life rn

distracted by the clearly-not-Chris-Dave old dude on drums in the video, so here's some Chris Dave: https://www.instagram.com/p/BFiUAcbPiGf/

chris dave is so good

i thought i knew what he was doing in that video and it turns out: i didn't

The new song is good; reminiscent of 'Stop the World' from BLACKsummers'night — think I prefer 'Lake by the Ocean' though.

trying to determine what the timpani and choral vocals remind me of. rotary connection? they give it such a haunted feeling

Yeah, definitely a semi-spooky Rotary Connection "baroque soul" vibe to this new tune.

http://pitchfork.com/features/interview/9901-maxwell-hostage-of-love/

this interview makes me very excited to hear the album

possibly more excited than the album will make me

good album cover though

though tbh, the first single sounds very much like post-00 maxwell. hes really become kind of a sade artist. he basically does one thing, does it well, but doesnt really shift much anymore, not in the way he did from UHS to embrya. i think his melodies used to be stronger too, which might just be as a result of not working with stuart matthewman anymore.

imo this album is way different texturally from any of his other work. melodically it is recognizably maxwell ofc

also he totally still works with matthewman

I prefer post-00 Maxwell so I am excited

matthewmann worked on the new one? he wasnt on the last one.

"melodically it is recognizably maxwell ofc"

i think his melodies changed quite a bit after now. what ive heard of the new one - just whats on YT - sounds very much in line with the last album.

I think now and BLACKsummer'snight share a lot more than now does with embrya. his compositions have shifted yeah but I think they're generally more open and uh dimensional? since embrya, not to take away from how awesome and immersive that album is. i think the more useful songwriting relationship to observe re: maxwell is how his songs with hod david have evolved

I think the Matthewmann stuff has a much looser, jammy feel. The songs have room for extra flourishes, solos, etcetera.

In contrast, the Hod David stuff feels much more (to use a word that may have negative connotations) inflexible. There are still strings and horn charts, but everything has its specific part to play and that's it.

Both sounds have their pros and cons.

Am I the only person who much prefers Now to Embrya? I feel like that record doesn't get much respect even though it is incredible

Embrya is his worst.

never said it was a GOOD move from UHS to embrya

Ha, I didn't know other people struggled with Embrya, too. It's always spoken of so reverentially

"Cococure" is the only thing that sticks imo

drowndeep is one of his best songs imo

it ends up being R&B muzak after the half way mark or so IIRC but cmon, that opening stretch is terrific!

reminds me of that bit in prince's movie star - 'environmental records... supposed to make you horny but just makes me wanna go to the bathroom'

"know these things" is also amazing

embrya is amazing and i'll hear nothing against it

urban hang suite is his "worst" imo

embrya is sort of like "what if voodoo took place underwater"

i like embrya but that's an extremely generous interpretation

embrya is sort of like "what if voodoo took place underwater"

"..and crabs ate the remains..?

lol yeah it's an exaggeration

We can agree, I hope, that each record improved on the last. Now was the breakthrough; "Fortunate" helped.

the minimizing of urban hang suite here feels like revisionist history to me

"urban hang suite is his "worst" imo"

WTF?!

embrya is more like what might happen if maxwell heard way too many ambient records, read way too many new agey spiritualism books, and never heard voodoo once (which he couldnt have done anyway, its more like he spent more time than anyone should have done with prince's karma sutra album).

idk embrya is so much about inhabiting a groove, which i think grounds it and makes it accessible even as it digresses and blurs

it's really important to look at those scare quotes imo when i talk about uhs

also i think i'm really in the minority re: thinking urban hang suite is his "worst," i'm pretty sure that record is settled in its canon and i can't do much to revise its place in history

I don't think it's his worst, but the first two records are his least interesting to my ears

yeah i think that is what i am really saying

i could buy the argument that now is his best record but i always understood it as his less interesting & adventurous coming off embrya

Embrya was a life changing album for me.

I rank it with Kid A and Kind of Blue.

And RE: Now

It is probably his most interesting album, lyrically. It is a pretty brutal breakup album bookended by two "happy" songs.

my man

anyway i think now is both conservative and expansive if that makes sense. "symptom unknown" sitting near "temporary nite" sitting near "get to know ya."

Now was my favorite until 2009.

usually when i listen to now i end up listening to this woman's work 50 straight times

My order would probably go

Embrya
Now
BLACKsummers'night
Urban Hang Suite

They're all solid 8/10s for me but I'm still waiting for his masterpiece.

Killfiling anyone and everyone with a word to say against Embrya.

I actually don't feel that strongly about any of his other albums (although I do about a song or two on each of them) but Embrya is like

https://www.sonntag-sachsen.de/sites/default/files/styles/article/public/field/image/2014_49/2014_49_90561.jpg?itok=UWmNkchq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7ziWpTAOWs

^^^ this song

New album's good.

i think i like the demo of "gods" better but i had..... very high expectations for the full version

Wait what demo?!

https://soundcloud.com/the-known-unknown/gods-1-13-audio-teaser-rough

filed my review a few hours ago. Preview: I'm in love.

all the ways that love can be

just in: "drowndeep" still the best song ever

gods just makes me think that you can now spot a maxwell song from a 100 miles. his melodies are so, so similar now. hes really settled into 'just doing me', for better/worse.

its also his phrasing.

wow, was not expecting these disco vibes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB9_ORhFoYU

yeah that song rules a lot

for a few day it was my favorite

has this leaked or what

Not that I can see.

i need this in my life

grab a coffee

https://news.starbucks.com/news/maxwell-to-preview-album-at-starbucks

My review.

great review alfred!

thank you!

can't believe both spin and maxwell made it to maxwell's fifth album

https://media.giphy.com/media/vMnuZGHJfFSTe/giphy.gif

Nice review Alfred but I learned a lot more from the comments section than the actual review itself.

I did too and am putting that plan into action.

It's up on Apple Music and... oh my god is it sensational

Went looking for this at Target today; they had a spot for it on their new releases endcap but no actual copies. Maybe I'll be able to find it in NYC tomorrow. I hear tell they still have some actual record stores there.

i'm finding it less immediate than the last album but it ends really strongly

Feels even busier and richer than its predecessor on my first listens; it's gonna take some spins to sort out everything happening on some of these songs. "Hostage," "Ocean" and "All The Ways Love Can Feel" are the ones that floored me immediately.

It's much more upbeat and less remorseful than the last one. I do miss some of the melancholy but that's just preferential b/c this is really hitting the spot, too.

also man the drummer can get some

"Gods" and "Lost" are as straightforward as he gets.

also man the drummer can get some

the "drummer" is alternately hod david, mark colenburg, and jermaine parrish (plus stewart matthewman plays drums on his two tracks). when i talked to maxwell he implied he also played some of the drums but i can't detect that in the liner notes

but yeah they can all get some

Kinda fascinated by how many demons and anxieties hide in the shadows of even the more uplifting songs here. Interesting balances between light and dark all around

yeah imo it *feels* more upbeat but in its heart it is not

e "drummer" is alternately hod david, mark colenburg, and jermaine parrish (plus stewart matthewman plays drums on his two tracks). when i talked to maxwell he implied he also played some of the drums but i can't detect that in the liner notes

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson),

he's not credited on instruments -- demos maybe?

makes me wonder what's his primary instrument? Also, I get the impression that he isn't a lyrics-only songwriter -- he and David write everything, right?

yeah I too wonder and prob should've asked but i was just sort of stunned by his answer about drumming (I was specifically curious about whether chris dave is on this record and he's 100 percent not)

damn what kind of reporter are you

a music writer

First listen right now. I didn't preview any of the pre-release songs past 'Lake by the Ocean' and '1990x' so I wasn't really ready for how spaced out and layered this thing is. About half of it is very reminiscent of Embrya. And lyrically, jeez. This probably just edges out Now to be his most introspective album.

Just one listen, but I can already say this is a much "deeper" album than BLACK was. That one probably has the better highlights, but overall, SUMMERS' feels like the more consistent work.

BLACK had a "Bad Habits" on it, and this one doesn't. But "Lake By The Ocean" is every bit as good as "Pretty Wings," and that's no small feat

this is really gorgeous

So here's a really fucking nerdy story...

Last night I needed to rip blackSUMMERS'night into iTunes. And I figured while I was at it, I'd rip its predecessor, BLACKsummers'night, as well. Well, it turns out iTunes isn't particularly case sensitive where album titles are concerned, and it thought they were both the same album. My first thought was that I'd insert the years of release, like so: "BLACKsummers'night (2009)", "blackSUMMERS'night (2016)". I've done that in the past when artists had multiple self-titled albums, e.g. "Elvis (1955)", "Elvis (1973)". But that looked shitty, so what I finally ended up doing was going into the Sorting field and changing the titles there. So BLACKsummers'night is sorted as "Black", and blackSUMMERS'night is sorted as "Summers." Isn't that exciting?

Ahh, that's a really good solution to that problem, Don! I had entered them as different discs, as in BLACK was disc 1 of 3, SUMMERS' was 2 of 3. But I think I like your way better.

i think i must've listened to "hostage" 15 times in a row last night

great track. last 90 seconds are sublime

"fingers crossed" feels like a sequel to "love you"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cted2PiWcAEUHW4.jpg

The vinyl version of this looks/sounds/is beautiful.

This record is growing on me every bit as much as I could have hoped. One of the best of the year. I don't know how I didn't even notice "Lost" until recently.

seems like a lot of r&b albums getting more end of the yr love than this which is a shame

yeh just like all his albums its grown on me w every listen

Let's just hope that blacksummersNIGHT becomes the consensus AOTY in 2023

the second half of this album comes alive in a way the first half doesn't really for me - I start off being disappointed that it's just delicately pretty background music, and only feel immersed/captivated towards the end

"III" is the only track I dismiss thanks to that keyboard. The album's going in my top ten.

but the horns in that one

well, the horns in all of them. ecstatic punctuation

submerge, dang, I can hardly breath listening to it

what an album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAkhdXHQ_G0

lovely stuff

Well that's goddamn fantastic and a half.

Wow.

Whoa, didn't expect that!

Feels a bit Prince-like

yep that was my first thought. p killer

odd how it's presented as almost secondary to the music video or short film or whatever (which is a tidal exclusive i think??) when the video is just 'fine' and the song stands v well on its own

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PmTnCboNFc

video went on vevo yesterday

That is stunning. What an incredible vocal performance.

Also this

https://www.rollingstone.com/maxwell-glass-house-video-w521716

(A review rather than an interview, but more details about the filmmakers etc.)

i'm pretty late getting into Maxwell, but he's great. i don't have much to add beyond that right now!

the best

I almost feel like that's cheating since the rest of us have to wait YEARS between scraps.

lol otm

I can empathize my Spotify went offline for a minute earlier and the wait between Now and BLACKsummersnight was excruciating.

haha

So long as you avoid his second album and last single you're in for a delight: what a catalog.

avoid Embrya?? whaaaaat

It's a dense bore, "Cococure" excepted. I get it stuck in my head once a week.

i dont get dense from embrya at all. the songs have a ton of room to breath. Cococure through Know These Things is an incredibly strong stretch of canon maxwell.

Embrya is pretty much the antithesis of what dense could apply to in pop music.

Yeah, sorry -- to me his melodic sense isn't as well-developed, leading to clotted arrangements. NOW is when things click into place.

"drowndeep" is one of his best songs imo

Yeah, sorry -- to me his melodic sense isn't as well-developed, leading to clotted arrangements. NOW is when things click into place.

I hear you. That approach works on UHS imo.

UHS was far more balladic and conventional than ambient and arcane though.

Embrya was in some ways a complete departure from what came before which accounts for its poor reception. It was reaching for something "different" but wasn't authoritative enough in its intent to justify its pretences.

In spite of that I still think the music is undeniable.

agreed well-said

Today, Maxwell announces his "50 Intimate Nights Live" tour, a 50-date trek to many of North America's top theatres, including New York's Beacon Theatre, LA's Microsoft Theater, and Chicago's Chicago Theatre. Following on the heels of performances at North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam and Afropunk Paris, the multi-GRAMMY-winning soul singer will debut new material during these intimate shows alongside his many critically acclaimed hits.

...

A 20th anniversary reissue of Maxwell's 1998 album 'Embrya' will also be released this fall. More details to come.

A 20th anniversary reissue of Maxwell's 1998 album 'Embrya' will also be released this fall. More details to come.

― maura, Monday, July 23, 2018 7:47 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hell yeah

tsrobodo relentlessly otm itt

from my inbox:

Sony Music's Certified Classics, Legacy Recording's division for the celebration of Sony Music's Hip Hop and R&B catalogue, will release Maxwell's Embrya on September 28th. The release will include a 2-LP white vinyl package and a new 12-page booklet featuring unseen photos from the original Embrya photoshoot shot by Mario Sorrenti. The audio has been newly re-mastered by Maxwell and Stuart Matthewman, who has worked with Maxwell for over 20 years and who mixed and co-produced the album in 1998. Additionally, it has been resequenced, moving the original opening track to the end.

Embrya, which was originally released in 1998, reached #2 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #3 on the Billboard 200 and went Certified platinum. It also garnered Maxwell a GRAMMY Award nomination for best R&B album. The album remains an integral chapter in Maxwell's career canon. He switched up from the jazzier leanings of Urban Hang Suite to stronger basslines, lush strings, electronic beats and more pulsating beats and grooves versus melodies--with Hawaiian guitar riffs and Latin accents thrown in for good measure. And whereas the retro-souled Suite's concept revolved around romance, Embrya takes the musical discussion to the next level: the gestation of love and spirituality.

It was also recently announced that Maxwell will perform the National Anthem at the Opening Night Ceremony of 2018 US Open. The performance will take place at Arthur Ashe Stadium prior to the evening session on Monday, August 27th. This announcement follows the news that GRAMMY-Award winning music sensation Kelly Clarkson will headline the Opening Night Ceremony.

Additionally, Maxwell recently announced his upcoming "50 Intimate Nights Live" North American tour which will kick off on September 27th in, Richmond, VA.

also his new press photo is great (linked because it's giant)

hooray he announced a date in boston

I'm all for a deluxe and reappraised version of Embrya, but I hope that they won't drop the ball and leave all the great related material from the time still in limbo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN7gMZwhAeI

from NIGHT, which is finally coming out... in 2019.

OH SHIT

how does he even write songs like this

that's much sooner than expected!

the "You've insisted, you've insisted" part -- holy shit

Maxwell has filmed a music video for his newest release, “Shame.” Opening with a view of the New York City skyline and models clad in sheer dark scarves, obscuring their faces from view, the video is a vibrant look into black beauty. A low hum sets the stage for this ground-breaking video that dives deep into historical context, popular culture and realities of love; an all star cast led by super model Maria Borgess, featuring Jeneil Williams, Achok Majak, Riley Montana, Sira Kant and Adonis Bosso as regal depictions of humans shedding their shame.

Watch video here: http://smarturl.it/maxwellshame/Youtube

“We wanted to celebrate beauty. Specifically the beauty of Black women. Black women - Black people - don’t see themselves heralded as a standard of beauty nearly enough in the media, especially in entertainment, high fashion and art. It’s getting better, but we still have so far to go," Maxwell explains. "People of color have carried shame about our features, our hair, our bodies, our skin tone. As I said previously, this song is about removing the cloak of shame and opening up to love... including self-love and love of your culture. So we decided to pay homage to another beautiful video, George Michael’s iconic “Freedom” - but make it Black. The end result is gorgeous, powerful and stunning. This video is a love letter to my women of color. Feel no shame in your skin - you are beyond beautiful."

Going to see him tonight!

ive been trying to decide whether to go see him on this tour, please report back!

The DC area gig near me was so expensive. There was also a cheaper Baltimore one, but alas on a night I couldn’t make. Oh well. Maybe will just have to splurge next time

aaahhhh i'm so jealous, alfred!

So the show was terrific. He was in fine voice, casual and masterly in his between-song patter. I'm sorry that apparently Marsha Ambrosius was apparently too sick to play (talking to people in the elevator, I was impressed that many concertgoers were there as much for her, deservedly).

alright cool im leaning towards going

Soul star Maxwell presents "A Night At The Symphony," his first-ever symphonic shows this fall, joined by world class orchestras augmented with veterans of his longtime band. Maxwell, who’s known for his meticulous attention to detail in his music, is re-arranging his songs in collaboration with the 96 member National Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra respectively, for a three-night residency at Washington D.C.'s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts September 18, 19 and 20, and a one-night show at the Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park in Atlanta on September 27th.

let's fucking goooooo

THE FIRST FROM THE FINAL #MXWLNIGHT

00 : 12 hours : 00:0FF pic.twitter.com/dumJe89rcv

— MAXWELL (@_MAXWELL_) November 15, 2021

is the album coming too or is he going to disappear for another 3 years after releasing a single again

O_O

!!???!??!!?

if this means he's dropping it at 3am, i'm staying the fuck up for that.

i guess it's not actually 3am but sometime between now and tomorrow this time? i don't know how twitter works at all.

excited.

Let's just hope that blacksummersNIGHT becomes the consensus AOTY in 2023

― pumped up kicks and levels on repeat all night (2011nostalgia), Friday, December 9, 2016 10:23 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

we're almost there guys!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO-quWd4IP0

an absolute dream

i know he said (about a fucking decade ago) that the third one would be all slow jams, but i didn't think he'd actually go through with it! this is a damn fine tune and a promise of glorious things to come.

"creamy chocolate work of art" indeed. \m/

Going back to some of the more recent remixes that I missed. This one caught me off guard. Ooh, this is nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsFBLvqttSk

"Shame (S508 Cassady Remix)" (2019)

Touring with Jazmin Sullivan

Serenade tour

Let's just hope that blacksummersNIGHT becomes the consensus AOTY in 2023

― pumped up kicks and levels on repeat all night (2011nostalgia), Saturday, 10 December 2016 06:23 (seven years ago) link

would've been a more interesting consensus AOTY than that SZA album tbh

is the album coming too or is he going to disappear for another 3 years after releasing a single again

― ufo, Monday, November 15, 2021 7:50 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol

anyway, Tiny Desk this Friday

it's been 8 years since the last album so he should be almost done with the new one by now, surely

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/22/g-s1-17026/maxwell-tiny-desk-concert

so good. the crowd interactions were fun

stellar. one of the best tiny desks i've spent time with. max ofc sounds great, such a great setlist, and i cannot even begin to express my exuberance at the fact that hod david is in the mother trucking house. holy shish, he's slimmed down and still doing the work of an absolute heavyweight. rewatching/listening like a new release.

just some extra curricular gushing to follow. tl;dr- i like hod david.hod david! the elusive other half of MUSZE! he needs to be left the entire fuck alone to make music forever and ever! everything he encounters jams! look at his stupod guitar guy faces! look at his stupid hair! even that's totally classic! OH HI I'M H-O-SUCK-MY-MOTHERTRUCKIN-D SURE LEMME JUST PICK UP THE ACOUSTIC AND PLAY SOME AL GREEN REAL QUICK. wouldn't even be surprised one bit if he's a total dick irl. please insult me, hod david. absolute fucking legend, according to me.

My wife and I saw Maxwell with openers Jazmine Sullivan and October London at Capital One Arena in DC . As good as Maxwell is, the gig was marred for us by poor audio in our nosebleed seats. I have sat in high up cheap seats for others and never had such muddy vocals. He and Sullivan still impressed . ( we were some of only a tiny handful of non-Black audience members. The crowd did vary in age range from teens through age 70s).