Search - Ursula Rucker :: Ma'At Mama (Dig)

Her best record to date

Scott Woods | Columbus, Ohio United States | 05/13/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I approached this record with a lot of trepidation. Rucker is always good for a couple of tracks, but overall her albums have been left wanting. Too often she was either outshined by her music or the tracks simply didn't bear repeat listening as either poetry or music. Not to mention that her style launched hundreds of mimics, and some of them so well Rucker risked being outshined by her clones.



"Ma'at Mama" goes a LONG way toward rectifying all of these imbalances.



The tracks here are not only strong, but much better wedded to her vocal arrangments. The music and the poems both are allowed to breathe and stand on their own merits. Of particular note are the tracks "Rant", "Uh Uh" and "Poon Tang Clan" which, while tardemark preachy, exposes a too-rare sense of humor.



Sure, there are some too-familair devices here for a modern poetry record (cue the African drumming, cue the roll call poem), but the hits, for once, far outweigh the misses. A solid record."