ERYKAH BADU - "BAG LADY"
erykah badu makes her return to the musical landscape with this, her new single. the queen of the retro-soul movement releases her new platter in the same year that the movement's progenitor released his: badu isn't the sloth that d'lo is but, comparing their "comeback" singles, if you will, her new single unfortunately lacks any real impact.
when badu's "on and on" hit the air, there wasn't another song on the radio like it. it was jazzy but it was also very of its time -- her similarities to billie holiday are coincidental and so there were no conscious efforts to update that style. the album which followed certainly had its highpoints, but it was often plagued by dullness. "bag lady," with its sampled guitar lick from dr. dre's "xxplosive," sounds right at home on contemporary radio...and this is not a good thing. add the requisite "uhh, come on"s from puffy and it's bad boy-ready.
badu had a definite niche in the market with her last work; with "bag lady," she doesn't come off distinctive at all. the lyrics are fine, about letting go of your emotional baggage, and thankfully aren't marred by any feel-good sentiments but this doesn't change the fact the song itself isn't memorable. the beat is fine though it feels more at home on the dre song it's sampled from; the melody is fairly generic, and even badu's vaunted vocals add very little to the song.
i realize that this review is fairly short and lacking in insight, but i feel so underwhelmed by this single that i haven't been able to muster up much. when i end up calling something "disappointing," i always add, "hopefully the album will be better" or something like that and it's the same here. with commercial disappointments by all of the leading lights of the sound, the retro-soul movement is crumbling: if it's to survive at all, badu's new record is going to have be more inspiring than what she's put forth here.
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