However complicated Robert Kelly may be, the key to his musical success has been to couch life’s complexities in the most accessible language possible - “You remind me of my jeep”, “half on a baby” and in the case of Maxwell, “fortunate to have you girl, I’m so glad I’m in your world. Kelly written and produced track that Maxwell contributed to the soundtrack of the 1999 film Life. Ironically the roots “Lifetime” do, in fact, lie in Maxwell’s past, but not in Embrya or Urban Hang Suite, but rather “Fortunate”, the R. Then came the second single, the breathlessly simplistic “Lifetime” - Maxwell’s aching, yearning cinnimonny tenor caressing lyrics of love and life resolved - easily his most powerful single since “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)”. Months before the release of Maxwell’s latest Now, critics were asking whether he had re-bounded from his “sophomore slump” (read increased record sales) and even his label got cold feet delaying the project’s release date after audiences were lukewarm to the Embrya-esque “Get to Know Ya”. suggested that Maxwell had taken a page from ’70s rock and perfected the “album oriented R&B” soul. This is not to say that Now is in any way a disappoint - on the contrary it should stand up as one of the most accomplished R&B recordings of this year, but one that is not emblematic of the artistic growth that Embrya suggested.Īt the time of Embrya‘s release Reuters critic Frank Paul, Jr. They are supposed to sing (sell?) catchy melodies and bouncy rhythms and shoot artsy videos, but not exhibit artistic growth - “how dare he leave us?” Maxwell’s latest release is aptly titled Now as it finds Maxwell neither looking back or forward for that matter, but rather statement about accepting his audiences’ most basic assumptions about his art. “Saviors” are not supposed to be obtuse, ambiguous, inaccessible and unnecessarily artistic. Then came “Ascension (Don’t Ever Wonder)” and regular views on MTV and suddenly the “secret” had become the “savior” of soul music and with it came comparisons - expectations really - to Marvin, Curtis and a host of other “dead” legends who would themselves have collapsed at the weight of expectation and triple-platinum projections. R&B’s little secret - secretly cultivated by a small cadre of listeners (many of which who initially peeped the joint at places like Circuit City on sale for $7.99), who wanted to protect Urban Hang Suite and the man behind its genius from over-exposure (we can use Alicia Keys as a reference) and the filthy hands of over-promotion and commercial expectations. At the time of its release Urban Hang Suite was little more than a sweet slice of retro-soul, the kind of thing that was always gonna be in the changer, but was never gonna be in regular rotation on anybody Hot-100 station. Blessed with bohemian good-looks, with the requisite wild hair and an enigmatic and self deprecating personality, Maxwell was not quite prepared to be the poster-boy for the next generation. He is without question the crown-prince of the Neo-Soul movement.
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