At just under two minutes long, this may be more of an album (mixtape) interlude than an actual song. Either way it serves as one of Erykah Badu’s best. I’ll Call U Back, the busy party prepper says to someone on the phone over a lush soundscape produced by Zach Witness. If there’s a flaw, it’s that the beeps go on a bit too long at the end.
my rating : 5 of 5
2015
New Amerykah Part Three was supposed to come out in 2012, but Erykah Badu has apparently abandoned that series, which would be okay if this were her next album. Instead we waited nearly six years for a mixtape. The title comes from Tyrone and the concept is based on, meaning literally every track has to do with, phones. Why phones? That’s a good question. Why a whole mixtape about a song she made nearly two decades ago is a better one.
Telephone is one of her best songs and a portion of it is Screw Mixed here, but it just makes you want to listen to the original; the same with her version of New Edition’s Telephone Man and Drake’s Hotline Bling. That’s not to say Badu’s renditions don’t improve on them; I like her soulful quirky style; it’s just disappointing to hear so many covers. The rest of the tape sounds like demo bits from what could be another good album. I’ll Call U Back is especially groovy.
my rating : 4 of 5
2015
2015
2015
2015
2015
This ten-minute-plus rhapsody plays like a collection of Badu song demos, but she should’ve limited it to the first one. Undercover Overlover, which takes up two minutes and a half, would be a short song by today’s standards, but it would be one of her best.
It’s a solemn heartbreak ballad; she’s singing about a longtime beau who “thinks he wants another”; led by a lonely piano eventually accompanied by what sounds like an even lonelier violin. This is deep and moody soap opera stuff. The other bits are comparatively anticlimactic.
my rating : 3 of 5
2010
![audio review : New Amerykah : Part Two [ Return Of The Ankh ] ... Erykah Badu](https://marcellee.com/posts/79081.jpg "audio review : New Amerykah : Part Two [ Return Of The Ankh ] ... Erykah Badu")
1999
![audio review : New Amerykah : Part One [ 4th World War ] ( album ) ... Erykah Badu](https://marcellee.com/posts/79110.jpg)
It’s still the 1970s as far as Erykah Badu is concerned and that’s fine with me. That decade produced some of the best music, at least when it comes to the sounds of the instruments. There’s just something about an old funk groove that never goes out of style. Badu has a knack for funk grooves. That’s why it’s sort of disappointing to hear her cover old songs instead of making them up on her own.
The opening bit is a note-by-note cover of a Ramp song. That shameless jack move, which hardcore fans might excuse as homage, takes away a lot of artistic credit when it comes to Badu’s originality. As does My People, based on an Eddie Kendricks chant. “My people, hold on,” she says, probably referring to politically oppressed black people as the overall theme of the album seems to suggest.
But even if you’re put off by her social ideology and annoyed by her comic spontaneity; the Kolleen bit is grating; it’s hard not to be enchanted by her overall musicality. The original songs are, to my ears, better than the covers, which says something in regard to her talent. The Healer, a tribute to J Dilla, is voodoo magic. Telephone, another lament, captures perfectly the essence of soul jazz.
my rating : 3 of 5
2008
audio review : New Amerykah : Part Two [ Return Of The Ankh ] … Erykah Badu
2018
npr.org
If that 4th World War is about fear, Ankh must be a metaphor for romantic love. Conceptually that’s not a good thing; “love” has long been the go-to cliché for songmakers; but few singers sound as soothing and rejuvenating as Erykah Badu when she wraps her head around a groove.
This Part Two of New Amerykah is less quirky but perhaps more soulful than Part One. The set begins 20 Feet Tall with gorgeous chords over a clicking metronome before funking up the pace for Window Seat. Other highlights include Don’t Be Long and an interlude entitled Incense.
my rating : 4 of 5
2010
2008