Mama's Gun

&B diva Erykah Badu's long-awaited second studio release finds her incorporating pronounced jazz influences into her history-cognizant mixture of hip-hop and soul. Jazzy touches, from the vibes on "My Life" to the ballad "Orange Moon," with its languid upright bass and bop-schooled piano, abound. Jazz trumpeter extraodinaire Roy Hargrove was responsible for all the horn arrangements on MAMA'S GUN. "Booty"'s Crusaders-style horns and loose, funky rhythm nod to mid '70s R&B, and the guitar lines on "Bag Lady" could have come off a vintage Marvin Gaye album. With its delicate acoustic guitar textures, lush background vocals, and '70s-style keyboards, "A.D. 2000" occupies a classy middle ground between Sade and HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS-era Joni Mitchell. The album closes with the adventurous, suite-like "Green Eyes." The first section of the song finds Badu crooning in a '30s jazz-blues style over crackles that emulate a scratchy old 78. The second "movement" grows jazzier, led by flute and punctuated by acoustic bass lines and brush-strokes on the drums. The final section bears a more modern R&B feel, with syncopated rhythms and a carefully arranged horn section. Ultimately, Badu's self-description of an "analog girl in a digital world" proves highly apt on MAMA'S GUN.|

Since the arrival of Erykah Badu onto the neo-soul scene back in 1997 with Baduizm, commercial music stood up and took notice with an onslaught of similar artists reaching comparable peaks of mainstream success. After taking some time off for introspection and to raise her son, Badu returned with Mama's Gun, which is a turning point for her in many ways. Gone are the cryptic "Baduizms" that glossed all over her first release, replaced with a more honestly raw Badu singing directly from her heart rather than her head. Sonically, Badu wades out into adventurous territories as well. From the Jimi Hendrix-inspired opening number to the closing ten-minute song suite, she develops fresh aspects of her sound, employing artists such as legendary jazz vibraphonist Roy Ayers, jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove, Stephen Marley, and Roots drummer ?uestlove; she sought after producer Jay Dee as well. The results are consistently tasteful, which only helps to prove once again that Badu is miles ahead of the rest. ~ Rob Theakston