Me'Shell Ndegeocello: Bitter : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Give MeShell Ndegeocello credit for following her druthers. The third album of her six-year career could conceivably become a cult item, even a major hit. But Bitter ignores the art funk that made her famous so thoroughly that I can't imagine she worried about its commercial prospects. Although the music is slow and confessional, with Lisa Coleman's piano overwhelming Ndegeocello's bass, it's nowhere near as static and stolid as the Roberta Flack and Tracy Chapman it evokes. Unprepossessing at first, the melodies steadily gain resonance as the arrangements flower out into a jazzlike responsiveness. And the worst you can say about the lyrics is that in this context, "to wish for wine in her empty kiss" packs some wallop. Every one of these songs is about love, usually love thwarted by psychological disability. But the observation is stark and the music felt enough to render them vivid sketches rather than a new bunch of tales from the woe-is-me factory. (RS 818)

ROBERT CHRISTGAU