After an eight-year layoff between albums (if you don't count "Worldwide Underground," apparently an EP despite its 50-minute run time), Erykah Badu returns with part one of a loose concept album that is simultaneously a breath of fresh air and an exasperated sigh. New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War) does boost Badu to the forefront of soul music, a genre that has seemingly been dead since the days of the Gayes and the Greenes.
The album draws the listener in right off the bat with its clever production and arrangements. The walking bass lines and tender drumming serve as more than just a song's heavy and give off the soulful vibe Badu desired. The soft and dark electronic melodies and supporting harmonies prove Badu knows exactly what she's doing. Which makes it doubly odd that the album's first single "Honey," is a bonus track, tacked on to the end of the album and is miles away from any other track in genuine style or substance.
But Badu's lyrics leave a lot to be desired. The title track is a clever, sexy throwback to blaxploitation and the closer is a tribute to J Dilla, not allowing any room for Badu's vague politics. It's no coincidence that these few tracks, albeit as short as they are, have the most powerful lyrics. Her opinions of black-on-black crime, Katrina and her allusions to falling buildings are barely more than ideas and certainly aren't actual commentary. On "The Healer," Badu responds to Nas's claims of hip hop being dead with, "hip hop it's bigger than religion, it's bigger than the government," but in an age where crankin' dat will outsell soulful confessionals ten-to-one, it's hard to buy her claims.
The album draws the listener in right off the bat with its clever production and arrangements. The walking bass lines and tender drumming serve as more than just a song's heavy and give off the soulful vibe Badu desired. The soft and dark electronic melodies and supporting harmonies prove Badu knows exactly what she's doing. Which makes it doubly odd that the album's first single "Honey," is a bonus track, tacked on to the end of the album and is miles away from any other track in genuine style or substance.But Badu's lyrics leave a lot to be desired. The title track is a clever, sexy throwback to blaxploitation and the closer is a tribute to J Dilla, not allowing any room for Badu's vague politics. It's no coincidence that these few tracks, albeit as short as they are, have the most powerful lyrics. Her opinions of black-on-black crime, Katrina and her allusions to falling buildings are barely more than ideas and certainly aren't actual commentary. On "The Healer," Badu responds to Nas's claims of hip hop being dead with, "hip hop it's bigger than religion, it's bigger than the government," but in an age where crankin' dat will outsell soulful confessionals ten-to-one, it's hard to buy her claims.
