ZapTown

Meshell Ndegeocello
Devil’s Halo
Downtown Records
Rating: 4 out of 5
Links: http://www.freemyheart.com/

Meshell Ndegeocello is looking deeper within these days and taking a more introspective approach to her songwriting on Devil’s Halo. Since 1993, Ndegeocello has been churning out objective compositions, trading back and forth silky pop grooves with R&B soulfullness and making her the lover just as much as the fighter.

From the beginning, she plays a tug of war between edgy pounding rock and nighttime smoothness as her voice begs, “Be my lover,” on the song “Slaughter.” Trade Cowboy Junkies moonlit serenades into an R&B candlelit montage and you have “Tie One On.”

Ndegeocello pursues the concept of love or the lack thereof. She takes the same philosophy that Morrissey did with The Smiths and with songs like “Lola” and “Mass Transit” to explore the complications of love as she peruses the real meat of this album: “At the end of the day, nobody wants to be alone.”

Not to downplay the songs that make her who she is and the ethereal R&B goodness like “Love You Down” and “Hair of the Dog.” It is these songs that really make you want to sit back, close your eyes and just let the Trip Hop beats and Ndegeocello’s voice take you away.

What this does is give us a real person and a reminder that with a career that spans two decades so far, there has never been anything fake to Ndegeocello.