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Hello dear friends!!! This time I'm talking about one of my favorite artists from the '90s black music scene, one of the flag bearers of neo-soul: Maxwell!
Born in Brooklyn but of Puerto Rican descent, class of 1973, he captivated the public in 1996 with his stunning debut titled "Urban Hang Suite".
The album is a '90s update of the soul tradition of the legendary '70s and is enriched by contributions from historic musicians like Wah Wah Watson (who had worked with Marvin Gaye) and Stuart Matthewman, a close collaborator of Sade.
We have funky tracks like Sumthin' Sumthin' and Dancewitme, which originally recall the best of Prince, or the velvety Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder), the leading single of the album.
The atmosphere becomes more sensual in Til' The Cops Come Knockin', with Maxwell's admirable falsetto, while Whenever Wherever Whatever boasts an "unplugged" arrangement with voice and guitar in the foreground.
For the rest, lots of elegance and groove in an album we could call "neo-classic-soul". In a peculiar period like the '90s dominated by gangsta-rap and saccharine productions like Boyz II Men, Maxwell gifts us a classy debut with complex yet immediate arrangements and not at all trivial lyrics.
If you appreciate "Urban Hang Suite", you cannot remain indifferent to D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar", another milestone of the neo-soul genre...
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