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Album Review
by SashaS
9-9-2001
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| Maxwell |
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Maxwell: 'Now'
(Columbia/Sony)
Maxwell's taken his time to release the new album but the quality is behind the current nu-soul
This album has been long in coming and its first scheduling was in September 2000. After few more reschedules it was quietly dropped the list ... until now. And, it is a slight disappointment as it fails to deliver on a potential. Will history remember Maxwell for his hairdo rather than his music? ‘Now’ appears to point that way…
Maxwell hasn’t been a lucky guy, that’s for sure. Since his emergence in 1996 he has too often seemed to represent a victory of image over substance. Although his debut, 'Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite', had been sitting on a shelf for two years, waiting for a record company to take the plunge and sign this obviously gifted Brooklyn soulster up, by the time it came out it had been overtaken by events.
Then, he released an abstruse follow-up, ‘Embrya’, that made him fall from the mainstream grace. The third album ‘Now’ comes two and a half albums later (his 1997 'MTV Unplugged' was officially just an EP) and witnessing him recovering slightly but still too steeped in Gaye and Wonder’s territory without actually moving the goalposts. He is definitely stagnating and the echoes of his spiritual and sonic mentor, Gaye, are still dominating his oeuvre with addition of Prince’s more reflective moments.
Maxwell's problems are once again laid bare. There's plenty of wonderful singing on this album, set in soundscapes of emotional intensity but for all its stylish exuberance, 'Now' is an album full of wonderful sounds that's lamentably thin on songs. Maxwell is still as sensitive, still fond of wordplay, confidently funky (upcoming single ‘Get To Know Ya’ and 'Now/At The Party') and somewhat confused.
'Temporary Nite' starts off as if it means to go in a Jamiroquai-like 70’s disco direction but then meanders off elsewhere, never very sure of where it was meant to head in the first place. If there is one thing here that is wrong, this music is too polite for its own good.
There is an astonishing version on his cover of Kate Bush's 'This Woman's Work' aside, but that falls short of promising. 'Now' is, well, decent. And that ain't good enough, buddy.
SashaS
9-9-2001
Maxwell’s ‘Now’ is released 10 September 2001 on Columbia/Sony
Wordage: 376; Sun., 09 September 2001; 09:23:36am
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