Me’Shell Ndegeocello

Published December 04, 2003.Me’Shell NdegeocelloComfort Woman (Maverick) Simply fucking brilliant! Incorporating all the best aspects of R&B, soul and Prince’s contemporary funk with a kick in the ass from George Clinton and Funkadelic, the disc is a rousing surprise in the world of contemporary R&B. While the public gets flooded with industry-remodelled moneybags, Ndegeocello kicks the genre’s ass with groove and raw sexuality that proves that modern R&B doesn’t have to suck. The disc reconstructs soul from the ground up, mixing insatiable groove with Ndegeocello’s underlying race and sex politics. The record is not only Me’Shell’s strongest to date; it’s a late bloomer for one of the best of 2003.—Trevor MacLaren