BLACKsummers' Night ［CD+DVD］

ファンならずとも音楽シーンが切望していた、通算4枚目のオリジナル・スタジオ・レコーディング・アルバム『Black Summer's Night』が完成。本作は『BLACKsummers'night("ブラック"サマーズナイト)』『blackSUMMERS'night(ブラック"サマーズ"ナイト)』と『blacksummers'NIGHT(ブラックサマーズ "ナイト")』の3部から成り立っており、それぞれ3枚がコンセプトを持ったアルバムで、第1部となる今作はダークでありながらソウルフルな作品を集めた究極のマスターピース。マックスウェル沈黙の7年が全て集約された、エニグマティックでラグジュアリーなマックスウェル・サウンド全開。こちらは「Pretty Wings】のPVと『BLACK summers'night』メイキング映像を収録したDVD付き初回生産限定盤。

Rolling Stone (p.78) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[B]allads like the mesmeric 'Pretty Wings' prove he's an auteur in his own right, with surprising digressions and crescendos that mirror the songs' conflicted emotions." Spin (p.90) - "Maxwell is coming back with a flourish....[The album is] grittier and less New Age-y than his previous work..." Billboard (p.28) - "Full of heart-pounding melodies and true-to-life love stories....BLACKSUMMER'SNIGHT is a testament that Maxwell hasn't lost a beat." XXL (Magazine) (p.117) - "[T]he irrefutable allure of `Bad Habits' and the honeyed harmonies of `Love You' are Maxwell's reminder that some subjects remain timeless." Pitchfork (Website) - "Heartbreak is a constant in popular music....[This] is a deeply moving and evocative record that finds the singer expounding on this universal feeling like few can."

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

予定から数年レヴェルで延期になった時点で、当初の〈3部作〉じゃなく別の動機付けによる作品に気持ちを移しているのだろうと思っていたら、本当にシリーズ第2部としてニュー・アルバムが律儀に到着。前作『BLACKsummers'night』リリース時のインタヴューで〈希望に満ちていて、気分を昂揚させてくれるポジティヴなアルバム〉と予告していたそのまんまではないものの、ブルージーな感傷や倦怠も美意識のフィルターを通してスピリチュアルな歌世界に変える術はこの人ならでは。イントロが一瞬"All I Do"っぽいダンサブルな冒頭曲をはじめ、躍動するリズムのなかで自在に歌声を泳がせる姿が随所で印象を残すのは、やはり今回も前作同様にライヴ・パフォーマンスから得た興奮をフィードバックした結果でもあるのだろう。もちろん、その空間を支配するヴォーカルの求心力が、〈いい感じなネオ・ソウル風〉の有象無象とは似て非なる点。気合いと野心がリズミックに蠢く力作で、これは『blacksummers'NIGHT』にも期待できそうだ。
bounce (C)狛犬

祝・復活!!　90年代半ばからディアンジェロやエリック・ベネイらと並んでR&Bシーンを席巻した〈ニュー・クラシック・ソウル〉の旗手として鮮烈なデビューを果たした男が、2001年の3作目『Now』以降の長い沈黙を破ってついに動き出した。ゲストは皆無。ホーン・セクションを含む10人編成のバンドをバックに、シンプルながらもより完璧なサウンドを追求したような、緊張感とファンクネスの漲った楽曲が選りすぐられている。単にメロウかつ官能的な雰囲気だけで聴かせるのではなく、バンドならではの有機的なアレンジの妙も楽しめ、どこか耳馴染みのあるメロディーからも聴くほどにディープさが滲み出てくる高純度なソウル・ミュージックだ。しかもこれが3部作の第1弾らしいので、今後の展開にも期待大!　
bounce (C)卯之田吉晴