London,

Erykah Badu is Amerykahn beauty

By David Smyth, Evening Standard  01.07.08

Neo-Soul figurehead Erykah Badu will have elicited more than a few shivers of apprehension when she announced that her latest album, the portentously titled New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) was to be the first instalment of a rapidly released trilogy. Still more worried glances when her band at last night's show included a full-time flautist in a waistcoat - a sure sign of jazz-funk odysseys to come.

But the statuesque Dallas singer can be forgiven the odd bout of self-indulgence. When on form, as she often was this evening, she is fantastically entertaining.

Confounding her earth mother image by sporting a tight black outfit, skyscraping heels and a Marge Simpson tower of hair that made Amy Winehouse's rat's nest look like a buzzcut, she led her tight band through a meandering, curfew-busting set that made a sweaty, unbearably hot Academy even sweatier.

Tiresome moments included the tedious instrumental that heralded her arrival and her habit of ending songs by fiddling about on a drum pad with the ability of someone who had just bought it that morning.

Her occasional speeches could have done with some self-editing, too, though we did learn her thoughts on the Mexican Zapatista movement and her enthusiasm for the US elections and Barack Obama.

When she threw back her head and sang in a voice with more raw power than the high, reedy thing that makes mellow gold of her albums, she truly mesmerised. New songs headed in numerous directions, from the strident funk of Amerykahn Promise to the spooky, minimal hip-hop of The Healer. Older tracks were tinkered with and sometimes dismantled, notably when she quadrupled the speed of languid early hit Apple Tree and threw in the electro riff from Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe Express.

There were African moments, a snippet of blues standard Black Rose and a fair bit of jazzy noodling, which she halted at one point with a simple, "Let's do somethin' else". She did virtually everything else, a restless talent who is inventive enough to pull off that intrepid album hat trick.

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