Does anyone listen to Meshell Ndegocello? That is, in the sense that one owns one of her releases prior to "Bitter," her latest artistic venture? Her debut release, "Plantation Lullabies" spawned the mediocre single "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)," while her follow-up, "Peace Beyond Passion," birthed no hits whatsoever.
It's fair to assume that Ndegocello does not command legions of ardent fans, thus justifying my initial question. With that notion in mind I harbored a certain degree of skepticism toward this album.
After listening to the entire album quite a few times I still find myself unable to rave about one particular aspect of it. There appears to be no material suitably catchy to make a single from. The album in it entirety, however, is not so easy to discount. In fact, I found it curious if not thrilling.
The first track, "Adam" is an instrumental (as is the tenth track, entitled "Eve") with a very deep, loungy tone. Interestingly, while Ndegocello plays bass, there is no bass in the forefront of this song.
Indeed, throughout the album the bass doesn't become as noticeable as it does on most rock/pop albums. Perhaps the best way to describe "Bitter" is as ambient window dressing, like something from the annals of The Gap music library. However, unlike the music of The Gap these tunes seem to have a message that doesn't end with "Everybody in Cords."
There are some reference points. The beginning of "Satisfy" sounds like the beginning of "Ava Adore" by The Smashing Pumpkins, and the remainder of the album moves from heavy classical instrumentation to a more funk oriented sound--the only hallmark of bass instrumentation I can detect on "Bitter."
Lyrically, the album seems to explore love and scorn, with many appeals to a lover to remain with Ndegocello. This sort of wording combined with the funk sound could almost make Ndegocello a female Issac Hayes, although her vocabulary, while perhaps sometimes as sexual, is too couth to include the word "shaft."
"Bitter" would be a good candidate to soundtrack either a long sex scene in a movie or the introspective, alone-on-the-subway/pondering-how-I-screwed-up scene. Alas, it's not extremely distinctive or diverse in the topics it covers. Unless you're a fan of Ndegocello or the sort of ambient music genre this CD aspires to be a part of, don't go out and waste flow on it.
