Usher, Chris Brown, Mario, Trey Songs, Neyo. These guys are the face of R&B/Soul right now. In comparison to, say, Maxwell, I would call the current face of R&B mediocre. Despite being unable to match the dancing ability of the under 25 crowd, Maxwell continues to hit it, producing quality music with meaning. Blacksummers’night is Maxwell’s newest album and his staged ‘comeback’. The dude has not been in circulation for approximately eight years. Not too sure whether most Salient readers would be familiar with the ‘brown pop culture’ I grew up with but Maxwell would be the guy who sings the song Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan hook up to for the first time in Love and Basketball. Bar my walk down memory lane, Maxwell has provided some of the most memorable slow jams over the last decade, with songs like ‘This Woman’s Worth’ and ‘Lifetime’.
Eight years down the track Maxwell’s still on the “soul of love” tip with songs like ‘Pretty Wings’, ‘Stop the World’ and ‘Love You’. ‘Pretty Wings’ is the first release off the album and is currently enjoying limited radio play. I would have to say since I downloaded the leak some months ago this one continues to be my favourite track.
Though I’m obviously a fan of Maxwell’s style of song, there are a couple of sore points to the album. 1: The album is only nine tracks long the last of which is an instrumental (‘Phoenix Rise’). Ergo, it’s way too short. After waiting 8 years one might have expected an album with at least 12 tracks. 2: While I am definitely feeling the lyrical content, there doesn’t seem to be consistency in the production of each track.
After all of that I could still listen to the whole album because…he’s Maxwell. You can decide for yourself how completely unhinged I am.