April 5, 2000
The Once And Future
Maturity is fine, a little loosening up wouldn't go amiss either...
5 / 10
The turn-of-the-millennium-vintage era for black female artistes - Lauryn Hill, Macy Gray and most recently the voracious Kelis - would seem to augur well for the 'Nastees. Afro-American/ Cuban-Spanish duo Mercedes Martinez and Tracey Moore certainly have the talent to ensure double dividends at the sleeker and more sophisticated end of the jazz-soul goldmine. An apprenticeship served with The Roots has helped them too, this album has the group as their backing band and producers, unfurling the full depth and warmth of their spare but sensitive musical mastery.
But, the rich surface texture isn't always matched by the Martinez/Moore compositions. Determined to carve a niche befitting their mature outlook they ditched an earlier album in favour of this debut. The songs composed over a five-year period veer towards overblown attempts to make bold, vaguely New-Agey statements ripe with self-consciously 'womanly' wisdom.
Commendable ideals and there are certainly moments when their divine voices intertwine with a sharp bittersweet sentiment ('How Sad') but it's hard to fall in love with the preachiness of 'The Lie' or the gauche platitudes of 'Related To Me'. Maturity is fine, a little loosening up wouldn't go amiss either.
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