It is absolutely fitting that on the day of Michael Jackson's memorial service, Maxwell is releasing his 4th solo album, "BLACKsummers'night". It's been EIGHT years since Maxwell's "Now" release and to say that he's overdue would be an understatement... Which brings me to my point about Maxwell & Michael. Both of these gentlemen are EXTREMELY talented [While I'm not saying that Maxwell is not on Michael's level, I will say that on his WORSE day Maxwell is better than 98% of the artists out there]. And both of these gentlemen had/have been EXTREMELY unproductive as of late. To have that/this much talent and no product is absolutely unconscionable in my opinion [See Aretha, Stevie, Miles, Marvin under definition of "work ethic in their prime"].
My point? After two-and-a-half week's of listening, I am here to tell "Blacksummers'night" is NOT that good of an album. Of Maxwell's four albums, it's a distant fourth. And what makes me even angrier is that it took him 8 years to give the public the worst album of his career. Some of you may be consoled by the fact that next July he'll deliver his 5th album and the July after that his 6th, but I'm not. I'm concerned.
"Blacksummers'night" finds Maxwell eerily in a place that he's NEVER been. It's raw. Mostly un-edited. Stripped-down. The EXACT opposite of what all three prior Maxwell album's have been: meticulously edited, thoughtful, exacting and obsessive. "Blacksummers'night" feels like he got a bunch of extremely talented musicians into the studio at once and ran through the songs in quick succession. No looking back. How those session's went down is what this album sounds like. More instruments collide on this album than any previous Maxwell album. His vocals sound "rough". The song-writing is fairly formulaic. No interesting bridges or breaks. In other words, it's lacking in ALL of the areas where Maxwell used to SHINE. Oh, did I mention it's only 9 tracks long and one of them is an instrumental track?
Maxwell is already touring in support of this album, selling-out theaters nation-wide. It will be hard from him to see that the (assumed) sales success of "Blacksummers'night" and its tour has to do with his PAST success and not THIS album. Maybe I'll be proven wrong and the critics will savage this record and the fans will be lukewarm. But I doubt it. Maxwell has left us waiting for 8 years and most fans will probably be happy to have ANYTHING from him. As I said earlier, Maxwell at his worst is better than 98% of the stuff out there. "Blacksummers'night" is no exception to this rule.
I'm going to buy "Blacksummers'night" today because there are so few "real" artists out there these days. But I will be purchasing this album BEGRUDGINGLY.
If you've got an opinion, would love to read it in the comments.
cmB
6 comments:
That is really bad posture!
I'd have to agree with you. While none of his music is terrible, in my opinion, this album is nothing like his previous works and they were excellent to begin with.
I am not sure I agree with your assessment. I came to Maxwell late in the game...the 3rd CD before I was a certified fan...he just didn't make my radar. But once I was in ...I was in for life! One of the reasons I like this prject so much is because he is sort of "exposed" and "vunerable". I listened to the "video extra" where he describes the creative process and fell in love all over again. He, for the first time, in my opinion...let the rest of us in to that talented and creative mind of his.
Give it another chance and listen some more...the awards will flow from this project and the $$ will follow. 8 years is a long time to wait...if there is no water...we sometimes drink sand.
I gotta side with Craig here. While the album is good, it's still leaving me wanting for Maxwell's prior, superior works. Next year's album must be better than this.
Good post, Craig. Was not impressed by this effort.
ACTUALLY C'Biz, I agree with you. It's taken me several listens to get over the fact that it's no where near his previous work. Truth be told, I felt "Now" was kinda aight itself... Urban Hang is in a class of its own and Embrya is super under-rated. But like the many, I think I'm just happy to have Max back... I don't think this album is god-awful, it's still listenable.... but I'm still thirsty... (and ps. the behind the scenes "making of" snippets do make it all the more better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jb_JXJtnpw )
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