Devil’s Halo
With Devil’s Halo, Me’Shell NdegeOcello draws on the artistic success of two decades and seven albums to deliver an experience that’s sublime in subtlety, but with an undercurrent that will mercilessly tear at your emotions.
Her unpredictable nature seems to be her gambit--a marvel shared by a mere handful of lasting music deities. Since her departure from the Maverick label, she’s made a few noteworthy diversions into jazz and experimental and, having managed to build a more-than-impressive following while fortuitously avoiding the mainstream, NdegeOcello delivers her latest with a fierce devotion that’s largely forsaken by fickle audiences steeped in musical illiteracy.
NdegeOcello’s 1993 debut, Plantation Lullabies, stunned audiences by redefining organic soul; the burgeoning cult sensation represented the classic hip-hop dream, oscillating between race, politics and sex--and effortlessly bringing them together. Her return to the search for freedom resonated instantly, garnering praise from some and eliciting scorn from others. Such is the tapestry from which angels and rebels are made.
When Madonna signed the Berlin-born Me’Shell Lynn Johnson to Maverick nearly twenty years ago, she must have been touched by intuition. To her followers, if to no one else, NdegeOcello may be the savior of rock-n-roll. Now, two decades later, the portrait of this humble icon is the perfect symmetry of masculine and feminine, hostility and remorse; f*ck the brand, she’s created her own universe.
NdegeOcello’s eighth studio album is a cosmic narrative about love, sex and betrayal; it’s lonelier than Comfort Woman and less sweet than Bitter. Effortlessly progressing between tracks, the album opens with the schizophrenic "Slaughter," giving way to the sultry homesickness of "Tie One On." The punk-inspired "Mass Transit" and ska-laced "White Girl" chase the satisfying acerbity of "Lola" and nebulous wiles of "Die Young," and the album is left desolate with the seductively understated "Crying In Your Beer."
Simply put, Devil’s Halo is what angels and rebels are made of. And in Me’Shell NdegeOcello’s universe, symmetry is sublime.
List Price: $14.98; Release Date: October 6, 2009; Downtown Music
by Me’Shell NdegeOcello
