Talk:Now (Maxwell album)

Boston Herald review

Partial transcription using Google News Advanced News Archive Search. Boston Herald (Rodman, Sarah. S.23. August 31, 2001) review of Now (2001):

MAXWELL "Now" (Columbia) four stars (out of four). Prince doesn't make truly terrific Prince albums anymore. Don't despair. Maxwell is doing it for him. On his third Minneapolis-scented release, "Now," Maxwell continues to distinguish himself from the current glut of overwrought and under- erotic r & b lotharios with his retro, almost absurdly soulful ways. Organic funk, steamy slow jams and spiritually searching ballads all benefit from the Brooklyn native's achingly sexy voice, which slides from bedroom growl to feathery falsetto in a note's time. In the album's most stunning passage, Maxwell reprises his cover of Kate Bush's stark yet hopeful "This Woman's Work" from his "Unplugged" set, ... "Now" would be a good time to get this album.

— Sarah Rodman

Dan56 (talk) 22:03, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Washington Post review

Partial transcription using Google News Advanced News Archive Search. The Washington Post (Wiltz, Teresa. C.01. August 22, 2001) review of Now (2001):

Slip a Maxwell disc into the CD player, and you know pretty much what you're going to get: moody musings on the nature of love and loss, slinky bass lines designed to get rumps to rockin', lots and lots of yearning and please, baby, please, baby, please baby baby please . . . You expect this. After all, this is the brother who elevated begging to a fine art, the man who crooned ever so sweetly in his debut CD, "You're the highest of the high / And if you don't know then I'll say it / So don't ever wonder." In his world, women rule. They are mysterious beings at once worthy of worship and capable of crushing a sensitive sort with one well-placed dig of a stilettoed heel. And [Maxwell] is nothing if not sensitive: Sexuality is sacred; carnality the means through which lovers can find transcendence. In contrast to the bump-and-grind, pimps-and-hos sensibility of so much that's masquerading as music on our airwaves, Maxwell wants to play for keeps. As he sang in 1996's "Suitelady," "I never thought I would ever / Want matrimony forever / But you brought that Suite deep familiar / Let's get married."

It's a formula that has worked, backed by the collaboration of Sade's saxophonist/producer Stuart Matthewman and ace guitarist Wah Wah Watson, both of whom have played on all his albums. Maxwell's wistful whispers pushed him up front and center of the neo-soul movement, keeping company with the likes of D'Angelo, Erykah Badu and Me'Shell Ndege{acute}Ocello. His ethereal falsetto and emotion- wrought phrasings have made him the heir apparent to the godfather of the sensual solicitation, Marvin Gaye. So it was no coincidence -- scary, perhaps, but no coincidence -- that one DC fan confessed to naming her baby Embrya after his somewhat ponderous sophomore CD. With Maxwell's third effort, "Now," nothing much has changed. You can't help wishing that every so often now and then he'd break out of the box, stretch beyond his self-imposed limits. He does this to spectacular effect in his sold-out shows, but with his recordings, he seems content to leave everything at a "Mellosmoothe" simmer. That's too bad, because over the past few years, life has given him plenty of material: He's had his heart broken (again), canceled a couple of concerts for "personal reasons," and learned to duck when ladies in the first row start pelting him with panties.

...

In a few cuts, he downplays the head-nodding thump of bass normally underpinning his songs. Instead, he uses a handful of instruments for a minimalist feel, as in the mournful "Symptom Unknown" and the otherworldly "This Woman's Work," a cover of the Kate Bush tune that originally appeared on his "MTV Unplugged" EP release. This time around, there's room in his universe for joy, like his first single, "Get To Know Ya," an effusive old-school jam. Still, even at his most playful, yearning is always the subtext, as he strains for an emotional connection that always seems just beyond his grasp: He's "gotta get to know ya, longin' to know ya . . ." This for-realness wears thin in spots, relegating his music to little more than pleasant background noise, as with "Lifetime," the second single that's currently dominating radio. To be sure, it's terribly sweet and sentimental, but it merely echoes previous ballads. The best cut by far is the haunting, regretful, "noOne," where a lover torments himself with the post-breakup shoulda/woulda/couldas: "I try to forget ya / but you're all I wanna do / I could do better / But there's no one quite like, no one quite like you." It opens with a classic, '80s synthesizer groove backed by the wah- wah of a wailing guitar and an insistent beat bumping around in the background that spins the listener into a hypnotic state. From there the song builds, with snippets of his voice layered on top of each other, refrain floating over refrain in an eerie echo. Here, Maxwell almost chants the lyrics, repeating them over and over again, the way obsessive thoughts ricochet around the brain of the heartbroken: "If I made you love me again / If I made you want me again." If only, if only, love didn't so often equal regret. But then Maxwell would be a man without a mission. (To hear a free Sound Bite from this album, call Post-Haste at 202- 334-9000 and press 8183.)

— Teresa Wiltz

Dan56 (talk) 22:44, 25 September 2009 (UTC)