Track Listing

1. The Womb
2. The Way
3. Deuteronomy: Niggerman
4. Ecclesiastes : Free My Heart
5. Leviticus : Faggot
6. Mary Magalene
7. God Shiva
8. Who Is He And What Is He To You
9. Stay
10. Bittersweet
11. A Tear And A Smile
12. Make Me Wanna Holler

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32192 in Music
• Released on: 1996-06-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced

Customer Reviews

Music beyond boredom.
Me'Shell continues to shows how deeply connected she is to the universe and human conditions. She is very daring, endearing, innovative, experimental and unbridled in her musical and lyrical approach - something we need more of today. The second track "The Way" opens with "Jesus cured the blind man so that he could see the evils of the world" is something that most of us never thought about. Perhaps the blind man witnessed the crucifixion. In a world where artists are sounding the same I'm glad Me'Shell is a nail that refuses to be hammered down like a crucifixion. As a musician and listener I love all of her CDs. Give your eardrums some new sonics.

What a find!
About five years ago, a bare CD with a big script "M" printed on it -- no case, no tracklist, nothing -- fell into my possession: I still don't know where it came from. To whoever it was who mysteriously gave me the gift of this amazing collection of tracks, thank you.

Song after song, she soothes and challenges. Thoughts and questions dance and collide: As a fiercely liberal Christian, "The Way" puts music to my own questions about my faith. Just how loud can a white man play "Niggerman", exactly?

Musically, it's as fresh and surprising on the hundredth listening as on the first. The production is lavish and rich, NdegéoOcello's voice is powerful one moment and plainly in pain the next.

Buy -- or find -- a copy of Peace Beyond Passion.

Meshell at her very best!
Ten years after its release, this is still my favourite Meshell Ndegeocello CD ("Bitter" comes a close second) and is one of my favourite albums of all time. A mistress of the bass guitar, with the sexiest voice I've ever heard in my life, she covers a wide variety of subjects on this controversial, bible-referenced album, ranging from her issues with religion ("The Way"), to her love for women ("Mary Magdalene") to familial homophobia ("Levicticus: Faggot") while all the way through speaking of a love much deeper than any I could ever imagine or hope to experience. "When we make love I feel it so deeply/ When we make love I cry," she sings on "A Tear And A Smile", for instance. She sings later on in the same song: "I would not exchange the sorrows of my heart for the joys of the multitude/ And I would not have the tears that sadness makes to flow from my every part turn into laughter/ I want the hunger for your love and beauty to fill me from the depths of my spirit."

Or check out "Bittersweet": "You enchant me so my bittersweet flower/ Mystery of the sages come into my realm of imagination/ Let Me Digest You," she sings (I've never heard it put like that before) and then goes on: "I cry myself to sleep over you/ You come and then you go/ The more I fall the more you let go/ The sweet taste of you stains my lips/ Even through the pain it's only you I miss."

Damn, girl.

She's right of course, in my opinion. I too question whether religion has ever really been a force for good and I too think real love does mean giving oneself completely, without fear of falling; jumping without a parachute, if you will. I've just never had the guts to try it.

Meshell Ndegeocello is a pioneer in more ways than might be immediately apparent. She was certainly combining hip-hop, soul, funk and the spoken word long before anyone else that I know of. This is top-notch music right from the intro to the end of the last song. Personally, I feel this is a five star classic. I liked "Plantation Lullabies" well enough but it was this album that made me a life-long committed fan. I think she's a genius.