Amerykahn Idol

Bigger than religion

Sasha Frere-Jones is Mr. Ubiquitous lately: here he is on NPR discussing Erykah Badu's newest album, New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War), which, for my money is the best record of 2008 so far, though it's ridiculously early to be thinking about such things. It is the epitome of difficult art, sonically dense and lyrically complex, part of a rich tradition of avant-garde black political pop traceable to Sly Stone, Miles Davis, George Clinton, and Public Enemy. Badu is widely regarded as one of the progenitors of neo-soul - that is, soul updated with hip-hop signifiers - and New Amerykah persists in that vein, probing at its outer boundaries in search of something ineffably new; tracks that begin as straightforward songs end as sound collages, riven by expropriated dialogue ("Twinkle" concludes with a near-straight lift of Peter Finch's famous monologue from Network) and meditations on the religious philosophy of Clarence 13X Smith, the leader of a Nation of Islam splinter group assassinated in 1969. It's an imposing-sounding work, but thanks to Badu's ear for pop, which here doesn't necessarily translate into hooks, it remains an engaging, satisfying listen throughout. Slyly appended as a hidden track is the sweet, conventional radio single, "Honey," a standard deviation removed from the rest of the album, like a dessert awaiting a child who cleans his plate at dinnertime.