Devil's Halo
Encyclopedia
Devil's Halo is the eighth studio album
by American recording artist Me'Shell Ndegéocello
, released October 6, 2009, on Downtown Records
. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2008 to 2009 at engineer S. Husky Höskulds
's eightbitaudio (8BA) studio in Los Angeles, California
. Produced by Ndegéocello, guitarist Chris Bruce, and keyboardist Keith Ciancia, Devil's Halo features an ominous theme of love and an eclectic fusion
sound, incorporating musical elements of rock
, pop
, dub
, and funk
. Although it charted modestly, the album was well-received by music critics upon its release.
's eightbitaudio (8BA) studio in Los Angeles, California
. Recorded with live instrumentation, it did not undergo digital post-production, which contributed to its raw and organic sound.
sound dominated by pop
and soul
-influenced rock
songs, as well as prominent elements of funk
and dub music
. The Boston Globe
s Sarah Rodman notes a "catholicity of sounds" on the album. Jacqueline Smith of The New Zealand Herald
noted its musical fusion, but ultimately viewed the album as rooted in soul music, writing that "though it channels everyone from Sade
to Santana
, it's an album of mostly soul - of the soul-baring kind". The album's primary lyrical theme concerns the treachery of love and its bitter effects.
s. At Metacritic
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 78, based on seven reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic editor Thom Jurek praised Ndegéocello's musical vision and songwriting, stating "she hasn't been so nakedly vulnerable and brazenly honest on record as she is here". Gary Graff of Billboard
complimented the album's musical style and wrote that it "neatly straddles a line between challenging and accessible, with some of the tightest and catchiest compositions she's yet brought forth". Andrew Burgess of MusicOMH
gave it four out of five stars and called it "achingly sensual and brutally violent". Detroit Free Press
writer Martin Bandyke gave the album three out of four stars and called it "progressive but accessible". Metro Spirit
s Frazia Lee praised Ndegéocello's musicianship and lyrical substance, commenting that she "illustrates a quiet calm that allows you to engage in poetic mediation". Ed Potton of The Times
commented that Ndegéocello's voice "resides somewhere between Sade and PJ Harvey
". Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post
wrote that "Ndegéocello has rarely sounded stronger, and the disc's stripped-down approach accentuates her musical brawn".
However, Andy Gill of The Independent
found the album's eclectic style inconsistent, stating "The songs seem to bleed into one another, with too much pointlessly flashy playing leading to polite jazz-rock hell. One's left yearning for a hummable melody that might imprint one of these songs upon one's memory". Mojo
gave it two out of five stars and stated "Lyrically her songs are as politically charged as ever, musically they're laboured experiments in style". Q
gave the album four out of five stars and commented that "For all the fraughness there are unpredictable but always apposite moments of beauty". The Huffington Post
s Mike Ragogna called Devil's Halo "highly original" and commended Ndegéocello's songwriting for its "low key/high concept subject matter". Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com
commended "the mellow depth of Ndegéocello's voice" and her ominous lyrics, stating "Like a world-weary muse, Ndegeocello taps into something rich and melancholy at the sludgy bottom of our hearts". Tyler Lewis of PopMatters
dubbed the album "the tightest, most emotionally potent work she’s produced since Bitter
", but added that Devil's Halo has "a greater sense of perspective of life’s realities". Noel Murray of The A.V. Club
described it as "bracingly unpredictable and persistently enjoyable; it’s an art-soul record for those who like to be challenged while they’re tapping their toes. Or vice versa".
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American recording artist Me'Shell Ndegéocello
Me'shell Ndegeocello
Meshell Ndegeocello is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and vocalist. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, R&B, rock, and jazz. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, and has had ten career Grammy...
, released October 6, 2009, on Downtown Records
Downtown Records
Downtown Records is a record label owned and operated by Downtown Music LLC. Music on the Downtown label is distributed by Universal Music's Fontana Distribution and, for certain releases, as a joint venture with Atlantic Records and also for select releases, by Alternative Distribution Alliance...
. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2008 to 2009 at engineer S. Husky Höskulds
S. Husky Höskulds
S. Husky Höskulds is a Grammy Award–winning audio engineer based in Los Angeles, California.He moved to Los Angeles in 1991, to study audio engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles...
's eightbitaudio (8BA) studio in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Produced by Ndegéocello, guitarist Chris Bruce, and keyboardist Keith Ciancia, Devil's Halo features an ominous theme of love and an eclectic fusion
Fusion (music)
A fusion genre is music that combines two or more styles. For example, rock and roll originally developed as a fusion of blues, gospel and country music. The main characteristics of fusion genres are variations in tempo, rhythm, i a sometimes the use of long musical "journeys" that can be divided...
sound, incorporating musical elements of rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
, and funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
. Although it charted modestly, the album was well-received by music critics upon its release.
Background
Produced by Ndegéocello, guitarist Chris Bruce, and keyboardist Keith Ciancia, the album was recorded during 2008 to 2009 at engineer S. Husky HöskuldsS. Husky Höskulds
S. Husky Höskulds is a Grammy Award–winning audio engineer based in Los Angeles, California.He moved to Los Angeles in 1991, to study audio engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles...
's eightbitaudio (8BA) studio in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Recorded with live instrumentation, it did not undergo digital post-production, which contributed to its raw and organic sound.
Music
Devil's Halo features a fusionFusion (music)
A fusion genre is music that combines two or more styles. For example, rock and roll originally developed as a fusion of blues, gospel and country music. The main characteristics of fusion genres are variations in tempo, rhythm, i a sometimes the use of long musical "journeys" that can be divided...
sound dominated by pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
-influenced rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
songs, as well as prominent elements of funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and dub music
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
. The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
s Sarah Rodman notes a "catholicity of sounds" on the album. Jacqueline Smith of The New Zealand Herald
The New Zealand Herald
- External links :* * *...
noted its musical fusion, but ultimately viewed the album as rooted in soul music, writing that "though it channels everyone from Sade
Sade (band)
Sade is a British smooth jazz band that formed in 1983, named for Nigerian lead singer Sade Adu. Their music features elements of R&B, soul, jazz, and soft rock....
to Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
, it's an album of mostly soul - of the soul-baring kind". The album's primary lyrical theme concerns the treachery of love and its bitter effects.
Reception
Devil's Halo received positive reviews from most music criticMusic criticism
See also Music journalism for reporting on classical and popular music in the media.The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as 'the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres'. In this...
s. At Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 78, based on seven reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic editor Thom Jurek praised Ndegéocello's musical vision and songwriting, stating "she hasn't been so nakedly vulnerable and brazenly honest on record as she is here". Gary Graff of Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
complimented the album's musical style and wrote that it "neatly straddles a line between challenging and accessible, with some of the tightest and catchiest compositions she's yet brought forth". Andrew Burgess of MusicOMH
MusicOMH
musicOMH is a United Kingdom-based website which publishes independent reviews, featues and interviews from across all musical genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B.-History:...
gave it four out of five stars and called it "achingly sensual and brutally violent". Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
writer Martin Bandyke gave the album three out of four stars and called it "progressive but accessible". Metro Spirit
Metro Spirit
The Metro Spirit is a free alternative news weekly in Augusta, Georgia . The paper is widely available at news stands across the Augusta area....
s Frazia Lee praised Ndegéocello's musicianship and lyrical substance, commenting that she "illustrates a quiet calm that allows you to engage in poetic mediation". Ed Potton of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
commented that Ndegéocello's voice "resides somewhere between Sade and PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...
". Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
wrote that "Ndegéocello has rarely sounded stronger, and the disc's stripped-down approach accentuates her musical brawn".
However, Andy Gill of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
found the album's eclectic style inconsistent, stating "The songs seem to bleed into one another, with too much pointlessly flashy playing leading to polite jazz-rock hell. One's left yearning for a hummable melody that might imprint one of these songs upon one's memory". Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
gave it two out of five stars and stated "Lyrically her songs are as politically charged as ever, musically they're laboured experiments in style". Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
gave the album four out of five stars and commented that "For all the fraughness there are unpredictable but always apposite moments of beauty". The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
s Mike Ragogna called Devil's Halo "highly original" and commended Ndegéocello's songwriting for its "low key/high concept subject matter". Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
commended "the mellow depth of Ndegéocello's voice" and her ominous lyrics, stating "Like a world-weary muse, Ndegeocello taps into something rich and melancholy at the sludgy bottom of our hearts". Tyler Lewis of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
dubbed the album "the tightest, most emotionally potent work she’s produced since Bitter
Bitter (album)
Bitter is the third solo album by Me'shell Ndegeocello. It was released August 24, 1999 on Maverick Records. The album peaked at #105 on the Billboard Top 200 list in 1999...
", but added that Devil's Halo has "a greater sense of perspective of life’s realities". Noel Murray of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
described it as "bracingly unpredictable and persistently enjoyable; it’s an art-soul record for those who like to be challenged while they’re tapping their toes. Or vice versa".
Track listing
Musicians
- Oren Bloedow – vocals
- Chris Bruce – banjo, bass, guitar
- Keith Ciancia – keyboards
- Lisa Germano – violin, cello
- Me'Shell Ndegéocello – bass, keyboards, vocals
- Deantoni Parks – drums
Production
- Oren Bloedow – vocal arrangements
- Chris Bruce – producer
- Keith Ciancia – programming, producer
- Eric Elterman – engineer
- Me'Shell Ndegéocello – arranger, programming, producer
- Bob Power – mastering
Charts
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
185 |
| US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The name of the chart was changed from Top R&B Albums in 1999... |
64 |
| US Billboard Independent Albums Independent Albums The Billboard Independent Albums is a chart of the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays in the United States, compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is used to list artists who are not signed to major labels... |
31 |
External links
- Devil's Halo at DiscogsDiscogsDiscogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
- Devil's Halo at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
- Running the Voodoo Down at PopMattersPopMattersPopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
- Sacredly Profane at Seattle WeeklySeattle WeeklySeattle Weekly is a freely distributed newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded by Darrell Oldham and David Brewster as The Weekly...
- Talking with Meshell Ndegeocello at The Village VoiceThe Village VoiceThe Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...