To be truthful, it wouldn't surprise me if this album got lost to history a little, and got dismissed as an experimental folly the same way Common's Electric Circus has been. Defiantly anti-mainstream, it's certainly the least accessible thing she's ever done, and perhaps the least accessible album ever associated with the Soulquarians. It takes time to click, for sure, but even from the first listen New Amerykah reveals its considerable depths and strengths, and invites the listener to invest the time needed to explore them. "Telephone" and "That Hump" are heartfelt and downbeat, "Twinkle" and "New Amerykah" furiously inventive, "Master Teacher" and "The Healer" as good as Afrocentricity gets in 2008. The sweet single "Honey" doesn't really fit, but it's good all the same. If another soul album comes out this year that's any better than this, 2008 will have been the best year for the genre in a generation - this album has quite simply grabbed me by the throat and it won't let go.
