Search - Georgia Anne Muldrow :: Worthnothings

Music for jaded ears

C. W. Hall | Atlanta, GA USA | 01/26/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Georgia Anne Muldrow landed squarely on most people's radar thanks to her guest spots on the Platinum Pied Pipers album. Singing over the PPP's brand of Detroit funk, she showed a voice that seemingly had no inhibitions about hitting any note in any way it saw fit. Turns out that appearance was just a hint at the original voice it was introducing.



Muldrow writes, produces, records, and performs everything on this EP. She released it independently prior to getting signed to Stones Throw. This re-release is meant to promote her full-length album out later this year.



You know those tunes you can sing along with the first time you hear them? There aren't any of those on this record. Muldrow doesn't so much progress through notes, as pick and choose which ones she's going to hit when. Add to that the slightly off-kilter rhythms that predominate on Worthnothings and you have a challenging first listen.



"Larva" gives you an early clue that this is going to be something different. One of Worthnothings' most straightforward production efforts plays the back as Muldrow explores the vocal path-less-taken at every opportunity. The result is beautiful and invigorating and just slightly uncomfortable the first time through. Run the song back and it's really interesting. Hear it a third time and it's amazing.



Move further into the record and "Lo Mein" reaches the heights of incongruity. At no point in the song does the melody serve as anything more than a suggestion informing Muldrow's lyrical choices. She swings all around the simple backing track, never resting near the obvious notes for more than a measure. Oddly enough, the result is riveting. It's lightning in a bottle. It's the spirit of improvisation captured perfectly in one song.



This is a record for musicians, radio jocks, and industry vets. It's a record for ears jaded from hearing the same thing year after year. The same drums, the same chords, the same vocals. For those ears, Muldrow is an unexpected treat. For less tired ears, it might be too much the first time through. But give it another few runs so you don't miss what's going to have your favorite artist raving about Worthnothings."

Chaka Khan meets J-Dilla?

Marvin Carey | Orem, Ut | 08/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Capturing all the emotion, doubts, abitions,and energy of the twenty-something woman becoming, Georgia Anne (Muldrow) extends a work of art unique in it's kind. In the likeness of Stevie, Marvin, Sun Ra, and the late Jay Dee (J Dilla),the music (which was produced entirely by Muldrow) sifts a great sense on self-awareness and love while acknowledging adversity and opposition before hand. A great blend of jazz, funk, soul, and inevitably hip-hop, what could easily be classified as neo-soul ascends far beyond any common-place lable. In a class of it's own, the "Worthnothings" EP leaves the listener anxious, yet content while awaiting the full LP.

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Something different, something better

J. D. Trevathan | Knoxville, TN | 02/16/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'd first heard Muldrow on a collaboration with Dudley Perkins in what was an amazing track. I then read Pharoah Monch was blown away after listening to her. That, coupled with the quality Stones Throw usually puts out, lead me to this EP, then to Olesi.



Worthnothings is no doubt the more accessible of the two, if accessible can remotely describe this music. It's very different from just about anything else I've heard. But Worthnothings is gorgeous music, music that eclipses Olesi and just about anything Muldrow's closest popular comparison, Erykah Badu has done. She just gets what sounds good, no matter what the situation is. It takes a few listens for Olesi before it starts to click, but Worthnothings clicked for me from the get-go and I listen to it on the train everyday as I head to work. This is, no doubt, a must have for anyone interested in something that's, dare I say, new and refreshing, like sipping a new flavor of Kool Aid on a hot summer day."