Ndegeocello spaces out
Meshell Ndegeocello’s seventh album begins with a spoken-word track about Islamic prophecy—“The Sloganeer: Paradise” picking up those ideas in a hyperdrive groove. But that’s just a feint: For all its interest in world politics, The World Has Made Me the Man of My Dreams is really about making love in outer space. This becomes apparent on slow jams like “Lovely Lovely” and “Elliptical,” in which Ndegeocello imagines herself as an alien sent to study the sexual habits of humans: “See how they respond when you make love and look into their eyes.” It’s this friction between the worldly and the cosmic, the erotic and the angry, that gives these songs their unique spark.
The versatile Ndegeocello, elaborating on last year’s EP The Article 3 (on which five of these songs originally appeared), confidently and creatively blends funk, rock, R&B, jazz, soul and ambient strains into a personal explosion of worldly realities and otherworldly desires.