Ndegeocelle,Meshell Ventriloquism CD

Some albums are testimony, some confessions, and some are escape. "Ventriloquism", the latest album from Meshell Ndegeocello, is a place, like it's process, to take refuge from one storm too many. Musically, Ventriloquism has the hallmarks of all of Ndegeocello's work, lush and investigative, subversive and sublime. As always, she pays tribute to her diverse influences and in these eleven covers, we hear them layered over one another. "Early on in my career, I was told to make the same kind of album again and again, and when I didn't do that, I lost support. There isn't much diversity within genres, which are ghettoizing themselves, and I liked the idea of turning hits I loved into something even just a little less familiar or formulaic. It was an opportunity to pay a new kind of tribute." A final note to the listener, Meshell chose art for the album that hints at what's inside: A graphic V, a hidden M, the artwork is symbolic, sexy, and calls on the language of protest of the era these songs were mined from.

1. I Wonder If I Take You Home [Lisa Lisa ; the Cult Jam Feat. Full Force] 2. Nite and Day [Al B. Sure!] 3. Sometimes It Snows in April [Prince] 4. Waterfalls [TLC] 5. Atomic Dog 2017 [George Clinton] 6. Sensitivity [Ralph Tresvant] 7. Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun) [Janet Jackson] 8. Tender Love [Force MDS] 9. Do Not Disturb This Groove [The System] 10. Private Dancer [Tina Turner] 11. Smooth Operator (Meshell Ndegeocello Version) [Sade]