Cookie: The Anthropological Mix Tape

Mesheel Ndegeocello is a real free radical, a maverick music maker and cultural voice whose genius is to challenge her listeners on every level. This is her fourth album, a hugely ambitious concatenation of every kind of black American music you can think of, from jazz, r ‘n’ b and soul to funk, go-go and hip-hop.

As usual in Meshell’s work, spoken word features prominently, with her extraordinarily complex tracks often providing a platform for black poets, philosophers and revolutionaries who create a web of underground voices on the album that you can’t usually access in the mainstream. Guitars, bass and keyboards are superb throughout – Meshell is considered one of the hottest live bass-players in the States – and top quality guest vocals include Talib Kweli from Black Star and Caron Wheeler of Soul II Soul.

Musically, Cookie: The Anthropological Tape Mix is Meshell’s most innovative album to date. The majority of the tracks are experimental, though a few of her older, softer, more soulful-style songs do slip through. It’s the album’s improvisational content, however, that might be a little off-putting to those who haven’t come across Meshell before; she’s an acquired taste, and her earlier albums are easier-going than this one, which sometimes gets just a little too abstruse.