Album Rating: 4.5

Glad you’re vibin rabidfish. Any highlights for you?

ecclesiastes is up there, def... And although im really digin this one as well, i kinda miss the jazzier, funkier parts of her debut. At least so far, haven't listened to it in its entirety

who said it better: meshell or kendrick

Album Rating: 4.5

so fuckin good

Peeping

Album Rating: 4.0

Ryus said I needed to hear this so here i am

Album Rating: 4.0

This opener sounds like a 90s crime drama

everyone needs to hear this

Album Rating: 4.0

This is good, but it's also far less catchy and adventurous as her contemporaries Erykah Badu and D'Angelo



Will need more listens

Album Rating: 4.0

Bumping this to a 4



It's very musically subtle, but the lyrics have grown more than ever

Album Rating: 4.0

Starting Plantation Lullabies and dang smooth so farrrr



I'm Diggin' You (Like an Old Soul Record) is very good

this is a wonderful album. i always forget ive got it on cd. very beautiful production too

Album Rating: 4.5

nice ars

Album Rating: 4.0

Plantation Lullabies needs a review tbh

“the way” makes me think there aren’t enough songs about people struggling with religion.

I feel like from what I’ve heard meshell finds provocation per se to be an artistic aid to an unusual extent, and that her provocations tend to point up the most unsolvable problems of society

there’s something about the losing-battle subject matter of her struggling as an individual with Christianity and its origins and mythology—and how the music itself, the crazy-impactful ascent of the two chords and the background vocalists (“so blinding,” god) seems to express belief in the end

Album Rating: 4.0

She’s a self identified atheist and all of the religion themed songs on here are criticisms of Christianity



The Way is about how Christianity was thrust upon the black community by white people who use it to control them. It’s implied that she’s broken free of this trap



Like the “I heard that you can save me” always read as sarcasm because it’s Christianity that she needed saving from

I guess I didn’t know that she was an atheist. Criticism prob more apt than struggle, although not as much as when I thought the lyric was “Jesus KILLED the blind man” I was like What

But yeah I’d say I am surprised I do not hear more songs like this, or maybe ones I like. I think there is a key element of ecstasy, but I guess she must locate it outside that stuff. Either way great song, I need to listen to this more but that’s prob my favorite, really moving. The race element is obviously key, and that’s probably subterraneously one thing I’m wondering why there aren’t more songs about—the history of the religion is so traceable, yknow?

Album Rating: 4.0

Religion is a dangerous topic to criticize, and most people making religion-themed songs are interested in just blindly advocating for it



Meshell Ndegeocello, who subtitles her songs of Leviticus and Deuteronomy with you-know-whats and names her debut Plantation Lullabies, clearly doesn't care about that social danger

Album Rating: 4.0

What I find interesting is how she's able to use voices she doesn't agree with to show you why they're wrong. Like how on "Deuteronomy" she sings as someone who only cares about finding a man to love and serve, with great undertones of why this is basically self-dehumanization





Peace Beyond Passion, if anything, is wild with how modern it is politically. Atheist, feminist, LGBT (mostly just "Leviticus" and "Mary Magdelene"), and highly concerned with overcoming the historical struggles of the black community



The fact that 6 songs on here are Bible references is so interesting in an of itself



Should I bump this to a 4.5? lol....maybe even though "Stay" is boring...