ERYKAH BADU NEW AMERYKAH PART TWO: RETURN OF THE ANKH (MOTOWN)
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This is the second installment in Badu’s New Amerykah series. The outward-looking New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War, which she released in 2008 after a five-year absence, was a comeback record, largely made on her laptop—a huge departure from the big-budget production of her earlier albums. Personal and political, it represented Badu’s re-engagement with the social consciousness of hip-hop, which hip-hop itself seemed to have mislaid. Her eyes were wide open, staring in disbelief, and her care for the world showed itself in her sadness and disgust at the state of it—she was riled up about life, love, and the perversion of dreams in Bush’s America.
And it’s not an anomaly. On almost every song Badu parks and meditates on a sample or beat, lampin’ on a gauzy keyboard riff or jazzily ooh-aahing her way to the end of the track. As unpleasant as it is to be denied a pop payoff (and in most cases a clear differentiation between verse and chorus), this denial is key to the album’s artistic success: the music is a perfect analogue to the miserable emotional stasis of the newly and involuntarily single. Listening to it is like being on the other end of the phone while a friend sifts through the ashes of her broken relationship. There’s no assuring her that she’s lucky to be done with such a shithead. There’s no sensible advice you can offer. There’s no clicking over to the other line. You just have to listen until she’s done and hope she finds her own way out.
