Meshell Ndegeocello
Bitter

It's surprising to discover how such an unassuming voice and seemingly underwhelming can cling to your skin and invade your insides more than any big black voice.

Meshell had already made a splash with the "Plantation Lullabies" exploit of '93, sponsored by none other than Madonna (!). To tell the truth, the bassist, whose talent is undisputed, had already tried to make her way, without success, among the ranks of the great Living Color. Great merits, then, for the first album, followed by the even more surprising "Peace Beyond Passion" of 1996, truly the peak in a soul/jazz key (5 stars for this one as well).

But in 1999, while everyone was preparing for the great year-end celebrations, Meshell released the aforementioned "Bitter," a title more strange than anything for a work that has very little bitterness, except for a few desperate lover lyrics.

The entire album focuses, this time in contrast to the more soul-funk rhythms of the first two works, on the use of panoramic strings and choirs that excellently blend with the extremely slow pace of the ballads. Yes, because this is predominantly about ballads, obviously played with mastery and sung in a half voice by a crooner who has thoroughly understood the lesson of Joni Mitchell or Kd Lang. In the series: you don't need 10 octaves to get there.

The instrumental opener "Adam" is beautiful: strings and the tribal gait of magical percussion. Shortly after, the real journey begins, slow, enveloping, nocturnal (the cover, not surprisingly, portrays Meshell in bed). No concession to easy listening, a splendid reworking of a Jimi Hendrix song "May be this love" (which I didn't know), a touch of mystery in "Wasted Time" that abruptly ends, suggesting an editing error, and the pseudo-commercial "Grace" placed at the end.

A solid, warm album that has the flavor of wood and will last through the years, never aging.

For me: Masterpiece