Meshell Ndgeocello - The Albums Poll

Sometimes I think "this is obviously Comfort Woman". And sometimes I think "this is obviously The World Has Made Me..." And sometimes I think "this is obviously Bitter". And so on.

between bitter, comfort woman, and devil's halo for me. no idea how to choose between them

I should really listen to her stuff after 1996.

alfred!!!!

I know. That's why I'll si and read two of my favorite music people recommend stuff.

Bitter's on btw

i'm just very very certain that you'll love everything about comfort woman->the world has made->devils halo

Very tough. I have a lot of love for the first two.

Bitter by a mile.

Yes Alfred you should definitely go to Comfort Woman next. It's not necessarily the best (it's not necessarily not, but... and I agree with Brad that could easily be Devil's Halo) but it feels like the right re-acquaintance point.

Also definitely one of the sexiest albums ever made IMO.

Devil's Halo is the one I listen to most often (which is still only two or three times a year, but still).

Plantation Lullabies is not top tier Meshell for me (broadly, I think Meshell is stronger the further she drifts from traditional notions of funk), but I discovered "Dred Loc" at age eleven through some random ass promo comp my dad brought home from work, and it remains all-time for me.

(Same producer as "Waiting" and "Secret Garden" from Erotica, and it shares their super lush sound).

Weather, closely followed by Devil's Halo, with the caveat that I haven't heard the three in between Bitter and The World Has Made Me... or the Nina Simone covers one.

I only have comet, come to me and i love it. One of the artists i discovered via ilm. There is a lot of listening to do. Two weeks should be enough to find out my fave, i hope.

World Has Made Me is one of the best albums of the 2000s

I think Weather and Bitter have stuck really deeply with me

i love plantation lullabies, dance of the infidel, pour une âme souveraine and comet, come to me. it is pretty hard to choose. i still haven't listened to weather in its entirety. the others are ok but they do not rock my world.

I've been listening to these albums a lot in order to confirm my ranking. I'm not anywhere closer but it's been fun really homing in on deep cuts like "Trust" from Cookie and "A Different Girl (Every Night)" from The World Has Made Me...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

well i guess i'm glad i voted for comfort woman

Now I wish I had! I switched to Devil's Halo at the final furlong.

Weather is great but it sounds to me like a more minor work compared to the albums that preceded it. OTOH "Objects in the Mirror are Closer than they Appear" is fantastic (and excellently titled).

comfort woman is the best album

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/theater/can-i-get-a-witness-review.html

Ndgeocello is going to be doing live in the Washington DC area in the fall a version of this James Baldwin rooted project she did in 2016

She’s gonna do an npr tiny desk this month

a reggae cover of "don't you want me" by the human league ft. cat power. it's gorgeous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcSs5mq-9BA

her cover of hendrix's may this be be love is one of the best hendrix covers ive heard. stopped paying attention to her years back tbh, mainly as i cant deal with her voice (so, so flat, posturing, affect-less, though in fairness she seemed to be doing less posturing on bitter), even though i do like her bass playing. might need to catch up and see if i missed anything (her singing might have shifted too, idk).

I could have sworn she covered all of "Remain in Light," but that was Angélique Kidjo, lol.

so, so flat, posturing, affect-less

aghast at this

Heard digging you like an old soul record recently and it sounded so painfully 90s, but also emblematic of her flat, posturing vocals (back then) though in fairness that's just the pose of your average spoken word poet of the period so hey she's not the only one

cat power and meshell are like the cover song bash brothers

lol

No idea about baseball. Is that a good or bad thing?

it is good

Her 2023 album was awesome fwiw

i had to look up bash brothers ftr

yea meshell's 2023 album was incredible, and her covers album ventriloquism is one of the best of its kind

I love all those songs she's doing over. Curious to see what she does with them.

Though redoing sometimes it snows in April now seems kinda ho hum. She should have done the times 777 9311.

it was like a year after prince died, she was paying tribute

I mean yeah I guess there were times on the first two albums where Meshell went for a vibe of dry affectlessness, but… the idea of basing one’s idea of Meshell solely on her first two albums is wild to me. It would be like judging Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan based on their two first albums.

Also, while Weather is great, I’m always surprised it won this poll. In my head it’s a bit overshadowed by its brethren

brian eno recently said plantation melodies is one of his ten fav albums of all time

ike judging Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan based on their two first albums.

I chose those artists as the comparators for that reason - almost no one claims that early work isn’t important, but it’s also not remotely representative of everything they did across their careers.

Imagine someone saying “I don’t like Joni Mitchell because I dislike thin, high, ‘girlish’ vocals.”

Meshell’s early albums are excellent and would be worth listening to if she had done nothing else - I think my point still stands

Oh yeah it does, sorry! I just had to stan for early Joni once again. BTW I've always heard Prine's whole career as based on early Dylan sad-funny etc., and may well be somebody like that re early Joni/

Was just thinking earlier this week how MN feels like one of the more artistically successful examples of someone who pivots from pop music to being able to prolifically do and release their own thing.

Sorry, my post above was unnecessarily terse-sounding

x-post to - Heard digging you like an old soul record recently and it sounded so painfully 90s, but also emblematic of her flat, posturing vocals (back then) though in fairness that's just the pose of your average spoken word poet of the period so hey she's not the only one

I heard her do this one live in 2024 and I thought she sounded great on it, and anyway on the studio version I think she goes from spoken word to soulful on it at times and I'm fine with it.

https://www.bluenote.com/meshell-ndegeocello-announces-new-album-synonym/

New album Synonym due October 2 is all cover songs w/ Ndgeocello and guests and her bandmates

from the link-Cynthia Erivo, Cat Power, Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, Bill Callahan, Chris Thile, Nick Hakim, Robert Glasper, Madison Cunningham, Laura Lee (of Khruangbin), Lizz Wright, Emily King, Lianne La Havas, Moses Sumney, Destin Conrad, ANOHNI, WILLOW, Evann McIntosh, and Ink.

The album also notably marks a reunion with David Gamson, the producer of Ndegeocello’s first two classic albums – Plantation Lullabies (1993) and Peace Beyond Passion (1996) – who co-produced Synonym with Ndegeocello and Abe Rounds. A rotating cast of instrumentalists also anchors the music on the album, many of whom are Ndegeocello’s close artistic conspirators, including drummers Rounds and Deantoni Parks; guitarist Chris Bruce; keyboardists Jake Sherman, Jebin Bruni, and Larry Goldings; saxophonists Josh Johnson and Levon Henry; flutist Elena Pinderhughes, banjoist Bela Fleck; and others.