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 Maxwell Is Back!!!!! Sep 23, 2009
This is Maxwell best work since Embrya. I am truly a fan and will always be. With it's live horns and well presented production and song writing, it is a 5 star album, no doubt! Even though with only 9 tracks, it is still a very nice album. Please purchase the vinyl edition, it makes me pleased to still have my record player, the sound is incredible!
He's back and in top form Sep 16, 2009
Mawxell's new album, "BLACKsummers'night" is the new album everyone has been waiting for. He has been away for eight long years. The last time Maxwell released an album was "Now" in 2001. In his off time, he worked on a trilogy, the first of which I've heard now. He produced his new album (under his alias, Muzse) with longtime collaborator Hod David. The album is a worthwhile- albeit short- listen. There are only nine songs, but all of them are fantastic. Although this is his album, the real star of "BLACKsummers'night" is former Mint Condition touring drummer Chris "Daddy" Dave, who plays on every song on the album, with his signature playing. Still in all, buy this album, you will not be disappointed.
The Nujazz New Millennium Soul of Maxwell's BLACKsummers'night Aug 15, 2009
Upon its release the first week of July, "BLACKsummers'night" matched the success of Maxwell's 2001 CD, "Now," by debuting at number one on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. (Reportedly, only Michael Jackson's "Number Ones" CD had more sales for the week but was not eligible for the chart.) This is possibly Maxwell's most ambitiously creative album since 1998's "Embrya." Many found that particular set of music too abstract in comparison to his mega-hit 1996 debut, "Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite," which established the artist as one of the pioneers of New Millennium Soul. "BLACKsummers'night," on CD and vinyl as in concert, has drawn and likely will continue to draw strong approval from the singer's fans and critics worldwide.
Those critics who feel obligated to lean in the opposite direction may wonder out loud what the results might be if Maxwell chose one day to channel some of the intensity of his romantic compositions into a collection of songs dealing with serious social and political issues? Such an effort, some critics might wager, could produce a modern version of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," or Club Nouveau's undervalued classic, "Listen to the Message."
Speculations to the side, the nine songs on "BLACKsummers'night" stand better than well enough in their own right. The set opens with the trip-hoppish and uniquely Maxwellian groove titled "Bad Habits," a song that seems to place listeners at the brink of a break-up that moves back and forth between barely controllable ecstasy and overwhelming regrettable sorrow: "This is the highest cost, take you and make you off/ Love you and leave you lost, will you forgive me..." The erotic angst grows even deeper in the second song, "Cold," in which we hear the first overt hint to the meaning of the album's title: "As God as my witness, my summer's gone frigid, my summer's gone frigid/ I know you can hear this."
The third track is the immensely popular "Pretty Wings," which spent a month at the top of the singles' chart, and a snippet of which Maxwell first introduced on the web in 2008. "Pretty Wings" lends strong support to the singer's statements in recent interviews where he asserts that he matured a great deal while out of the public spotlight for the past eight years. At a time when too many people resort to violence or stalkerish behavior at the end of a difficult relationship, the singer croons with altruistic serenity: "If I can't have you let love set you free/ To fly yo' pretty wings around..."
Each of the first eight songs is a stand-out with vocals that are more powerful than ever. They take listeners through an odyssey of love lost, love discovered anew, and then explored straight through to the burning screaming hilt. The ninth track is a jaunty instrumental appropriately titled Phoenix Rise, courtesy of Maxwell's creative alter ego Musze, that provides the perfect punctuation to the entire set.
A major component of the Maxwell's success from the beginning has been a spiritual quality within his music that enhanced its appeal to no small degree. It was easily evident throughout the Embrya CD, and in his cover of Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work." On BLACKsummers'night, the spirituality comes through most dynamically in "Help Somebody" and "Playing Possum." The former drives its point home with the echoing plea, "Give a little mo-o-o-o-o-o-orrrrrrrre!" and this chilling request: "If you see the future, ask it if I'm there,/ Ask him if I'm there/ Ask it to tell you, did I ever make a stand..." Moreover, while the title of "Playing Possum" may sound lighthearted, it is performed as a tearful elegy that calls for a loved one to "Come back from the dead" and ends with the final weeping sob of "Yeeeeeeaaaahhhhhh..."
The CD throughout is flavored heavily tastes of nujazz, the distinct smooth sounds of what the world embraces as neosoul, and elements of world music. For this, in an interview on [....], Maxwell acknowledged his band members: "I made this album and these albums with the assistance of so many great people. Musicians on this album are at the top of their game. To be in that zone or that place where you're just making music because you really love it... you can tell the difference I think."
by Aberjhani
co-author of ELEMENTAL: The Power of Illuminated Love
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
 Thoughtful, Mature and Unpretentious Aug 04, 2009
Neo soul has been on life support for a while now, sorry Alicia, India, Neyo, Erykah, Bilal, Jill, and Anthony but the king has returned and I am ecstatic he is back.
But could you imagine after eight years returning with the same "do" and the same sound? Now THAT would have been disappointing.
The young Maxwell is like a distant but comforting childhood memory, but the older, mature Maxwell is just "real". As much as I loved the lush instrumentation and the romanticism of Maxwell's towering falsetto, I am definitely "feeling" the emotionally raw Maxwell along with the blistering brass section, the gospel tinged piano/organ and those very, very wicked percussions that are front and center on his new album.
"Bad Habits" is classic Maxwell and "Pretty Wings", well is just plain pretty. Those two songs I believe are concessions to the fans who wished Maxwell would appear magically after eight long years, not one day older, rocking the Afro and Bryan Ferry's wardrobe.
A lot of fans complain about the brevity of the album but I say it is "compact", why run a marathon when a sprint will get it done.
The album cycles through the emotions of raw need, anger and disappointment, and ultimately sorrow in just under 36 minutes and you don't want to miss one nanosecond of this musical journey through an entire relationship.
Favorite tracks, "Stop the World", "Love You", "Fist Full of Tears" and "Playing Possum". Solid ballads and mournful pleas, nothing better than a sorrowful, beggin' Maxwell.
Is it a great album? Is it a classic? The answer would be no but it is a VERY GOOD one. The man is on a journey and for better or worse, I think going to get my ticket to ride.
1 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Not Impressed at ALL!!!!!! Jul 24, 2009
After "Bad Habit" the CD is a "Wrap"!!!! Maxwell is better than this effort. Not a good CD at all!!!
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