Maxwell - BLACKsummers'night

€ 34

$ 39

€ 34 Sold For

Jan 9, 2022 Sold Date

Jan 4, 2021 Start Date

1 Number Of Bids

Switzerland Country Of Seller

eBay Sold at

save auction

Description

Allgemein

Artikel Name: BLACKsummers'night
Genre: Pop englischsprachig Produkt Typ: LP (Vinyl) Label: Columbia Titelanzahl: 9 Dauer: 37:14

Trackliste LP - 1

1. Maxwell - Bad Habits [Uncut] 5:52 2. Maxwell - Cold 4:01 3. Maxwell - Pretty Wings [Uncut] 5:09 4. Maxwell - Help Somebody 4:01 5. Maxwell - Stop the World 3:55 6. Maxwell - Love You 3:35 7. Maxwell - Fistful of Tears 3:38 8. Maxwell - Playing Possum 4:22 9. Maxwell - Phoenix Rise 2:41

Beschreibung

Maxwell spent part of the eight years between his third and fourth studio albums walking the Earth, attempting to experience a life resembling that of a human. One of neo-soul's most visible faces, along with Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo, he had been on the music industry's hamster wheel for most of his twenties and needed some tangible inspiration. At some point he got down to scheming and quite a lot of recording; BLACKsummers'night is the first release of a trilogy, with BlackSUMMERS'night (rooted in gospel, with a twist, apparently) and Blacksummers'NIGHT (promised as a disc of slow jams) to follow. Just as he arrived in 1996, offering an alternate option to the exaggerated masculinity that was dominating contemporary R&B, he returns as the airwaves are stuffed with raging hormones expressed through Auto-Tune. He has made no concessions to them. BLACKsummers'night is all devotion, regret, and heartache, written with Now collaborator Hod David and played by a session band, including a horn section, that sounds closer to a touring band that has been supporting the singer for years. The musicians morph with every shift in emotion through arrangements that are unfailingly exquisite and sensitively nuanced, even when they are briskly played. If the singer got into adventures while he was away, he does not detail them during these 38 unified minutes, but he did go through a serious, failed relationship, just as "Pretty Wings," the album's floating pre-album single, suggested. Like the real-life flip side to Al Green's "Simply Beautiful" -- the song Maxwell performed at the 2008 BET Awards, signaling his return -- it's catharsis through bittersweet elegance, equal in its enamored resentment ("You toyed with my affliction/Had to fill out my prescription") and remorse ("I came wrong, you were right/Transformed your love into like"). Although the rest of the album leaves plenty of space for the most common form of pleading, the disarming "Fistful of Tears" is as impassioned as the steamiest moments and indicates the complexity of Maxwell's relationship: "'Cause I go insane, crazy sometimes/Trying to keep you from losing your mind/Open your eyes, see what's in front of your face/Save me my fistful of...tears." For all its dimensions and progress, the album is simultaneously designed to ensure that devoted fans will feel the wait was worth it. After all, its opening lines are "Make me crazy, don't speak no sound/I want you to prove it to me in the nude," and they are sung in falsetto. ~ Andy Kellman

Andy Kellman

Beschreibung

BlackSUMMERS'night begins the way BLACKsummers'night ends: with a riveting groove in need of an extended 12" version. Like the instrumental finale of the album that preceded it, which now sounds like a set-up, "All the Ways Love Can Feel" is a dynamic and deliberate soul, jazz, and funk fusion, neatly interlaced and enlivened with Kenneth Whalum III's saxophone and Keyon Harrold's trumpet. The grain in Maxwell's voice evinces the reality: the seven years that passed between his Grammy-winning 2009 album and this follow-up, at one point anticipated in 2011. There's an extra texture and richness in his voice -- it sometimes strains with purpose but never falters -- adding tension to these songs detailing a love that ultimately eludes his grasp. As laid out in "Lost," a bluesy dirge that resembles nothing else in his past despite being made with longtime collaborator Stuart Matthewman, he pleads for his lost love while witnessing that she's a happily married mother. The songs drawn from earlier scenes are relatively general. On the brighter side, there's the carefree rush of a new relationship, and then healing is sought, freedom is felt in surrendering, and contentment is reached in settling down. Amid or following all that, there are breakdowns in communication and cracks in the foundation. The latter is handled most deftly in "Fingers Crossed," where Maxwell lets loose one of those indelible hooks seemingly crafted off the top of his dome. After the final verse, as an eight-member support crew -- including pianist Robert Glasper -- plays out in dazzling form, Maxwell plainly speaks, "This is just for you," and it hits as hard as any other line. At once, it's among the prettiest, most complex, and tensest songs in Maxwell's catalog. While the album is not as fluid as BLACKsummers'night and has a couple frayed ends, it includes a high quantity of open-hearted ballads and variable-tempo jams that sparkle with indisputable power. Each one is supremely sculpted. Their decreased vocal smoothness and increased rhythmic friction are major factors in the set's allure. [BlackSUMMERS'night was also released on LP.] ~ Andy Kellman

Andy Kellman