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ME'SHELL NDEGéOCELLO
Bitter
Maverick
Give Me'Shell Ndegéocello credit for following her druthers. The
third album of her six-year career could conceivably become a cult
item, even a major hit. But Bitter so thoroughly ignores the
art-funk that made her famous that I can't imagine she worried about
its commercial prospects. Although the music is slow, confessional,
with Lisa Coleman's piano overwhelming Ndegéocello's bass, it's
nowhere near as static and stolid as the Roberta Flack and Tracy
Chapman it evokes. Unprepossessing at first, the melodies steadily
gain resonance as the arrangements flower out into a jazzlike
responsiveness. And the worst you can say about the lyrics is that
in this context "To wish for wine in her empty kiss" packs some
wallop. Every one of these songs is about love, usually love
thwarted by psychological disability. But the observation is stark
and the music felt enough to render them vivid sketches rather than
a new bunch of tales from the woe-is-me factory.
Rolling Stone, Aug. 5, 1999
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