Maxwell - "BLACKsummers'night"

It was a long eight years between Maxwell's third studio album, Now and his fourth one, BLACKsummers'night (released in the U.S. on July 7, 2009), but the good news for his loyal fans is that the musical drought was worth the wait. It may or may not go down in history as one of Maxwell's best albums, but BLACKsummers'night is easily and by far one of the best albums of the year. Everything that his fans have come to love about Maxwell - his delicate vocals, his lush song arrangements, his talent for songwriting - are all still fully intact. The one problem is that it's not as innovative as his earlier material.

Maxwell's biggest problem on BLACKsummers'night is that he was away for so long that upon his return, many fans had built up urealistically high expectations for his next project. It was fair to assume that since he was gone for so long that he must have taken his time in the studio making sure that this labor of love was his best, most ambitious project yet. But in fact, the album is almost ordinary by the standard Maxwell's music is judged by. That said, Maxwell is one of those artists who's judged by a higher standard than most R&B; singers, because his body of work has been so much better than most. Highly creative artists like him, Prince and a few others all are expected to top themselves and set the music industry on it's ear every time they drop an album. Well, although BLACKsummers'night doesn't quite do that, it's maybe the best R&B; album you'll hear all year.

This album is more rooted in standard Soul music and isn't as artsy or experimental as his first three albums, but that doesn't make it inferior to the albums that came before it. There are no elaborate - some might say pretentious - song titles like "Submerge: Til We Become The Sun" (from his 1998 album Embrya) and the songs are less esoteric and more straightforward. An example is the upbeat, soaring, "Love You," where Maxwell sings "Let me be anything you want me to be, baby let me love you/Show you exactly what you mean to me, baby let me love you," with a directness and urgency in his voice.

The chief highlight is the delicate "Pretty Wings," a wind chime-laced romantic ode to meeting the right girl at the wrong time. "Had to fill out my prescription, found the remedy, I had to set you free," he sings. Another highlight is the second track, a funky number called "Cold," wherein Maxwell sings about leaving his lover, then her making his life hell because of it. "Global warming ain't got nothin' on this chick, she's not to play with/You can't just leave this, you can't just think that you can quit this/She'll make you regret this, she's on top and she means business," he sings over a sparse beat of horns, hand claps and light percussion.

The album's drawback are minor: chief among them is that there's only nine songs. BLACKsummers'night is the first in a planned trilogy of albums, with the second and final chapters, blackSUMMERS'night and blacksummers'NIGHT, planned for 2010 and 2011, respectively. So the first chapter doesn't quite feel like a complete album, despite the fact five songs are over four minutes long and one of them - "Bad Habits" - being nearly six minutes. Hopefully when all is said and done, the three albums will be collected into one edition at some point. The other drawback is that some songs lack the raw, youthful emotion found on his early couple of albums. He never sounds like he's just going through the motions here, but on a few tracks, his cool sophistication could be mistaken for cold detachment. But overall, Maxwell's return is a welcome change from the mediocrity that's infected much of today's R&B; and Soul music.