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Album Review
by Dot Komma
2-1-2004
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| Erykah Badu's 'Worldwide Underground' |
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Erykah Badu: 'Worldwide Underground'
(Motown)
Slipped disc #9 - Erykah Badu’s free-based pieces
Female enigma that is Erykah Badu came to London recently for a rare live visit to promote her current disc, ‘Worldwide Underground’, and it was a show that left her fans delighted, astonished and puzzled. It’s not that the mixture of jazz, soul, funk, Hip Hop and musical numbers is the cause but its meandering nature, its lack of pace and gratuitous indulgence…
‘Worldwide Underground’ is structured much better but calling it an EP despite having 12 tracks and lasting an hour… Dunno, but when I were a punk, this was considered a double LP! Anyhow, it compliments her previous two albums, the five-million-selling ‘Baduism’ and 2001’s less successful and gripping ‘Mama’s Gun’.
‘WU’ continues Badu’s journey into lenient jazz noodling and among the first four tracks are two that last between nine and 11 minutes, heralding that song structure is scarce throughout. Her faith appears to be in jazz rather than ‘soul’ and, when it comes to nu-edition (neo-soul or whatever the latest tag may be) Jill Scott may well be the crown princess but there was still only one undisputed queen.
The moment she stepped – barefoot – onto the urban music scene with her debut ‘Baduizm’ album, Badu set standards by which all comers have since been measured. Still, lately she’s passed on the mic to Alicia Keys and prefers to be ‘underground’. Her voice is still as rich and reedy, an elegant thing that almost toys with acappella ‘Apple Tree’ and urgent, rousing ‘Danger’.
‘Worldwide Underground’ is a dozen organic slices of near-vintage Baduizm. Guests on the set include Lenny Kravitz (on ‘Back In the Day’) and soul-mate Common on the unstoppable ‘Love Of My Life (An Ode To Hip-Hop)’. ‘WU’ may not be on par with her debut disc but it is more daring, more innovative and ultimately better than all releases by myriad competing-by-other-means corpo-babes.
At the last London show (Brixton Academy, 01 December 2003) she dispensed with her traditional headgear to sport the biggest Afro this side of Ludacris… It is so huge an airline may ask for extra seat to be booked!? Still, it suits the sense of liberty that is so distinctive in her canon.
It makes one wish there were more women in music of this appeal…
8/10
Dot Komma
2-1-2004
Erykah Badu’s album ‘Worldwide Underground’ is available now on Motown/UMG
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