Search - Meshell Ndegeocello :: The World Has Made Me The Man Of My Dreams

Meshell Ndegeocello's seventh studio album opens with the curious "Haditha." The track's warnings of apocalypse are as resistant to easy interpretation as they are (potentially) ironic in light of contemporary world news. But that's Ndegeocello for you. The inimitable bassist, songwriter, and nine-time Grammy nominee has ecstatically defied pigeonholing of any stripe since breaking into the spotlight with 1993's Plantation Lullabies. Here, she returns with the most genre- (and, as usual, sometimes gender-) bending work since 1996's Peace Beyond Passion. Ndegeocello's elastic bass playing, breathy crooning, and career-long resistance to the low-currency melodic aesthetic of outright pop music remain, but nevertheless, these 13 songs pack plenty of superficially new calling cards, including a penchant for the vocoder, recurring bilingualism, and guest appearances by jazzmen Pat Metheny, Jason Lindner, and Robert Glasper.