LOS ANGELES, CA- I’ve always been impressed with Meshell Ndegeocello’s music, not simply because of her musicianship, but because she has always seemed to have something meaningful to say. While her first major crossover hit was “Wild Night,” the duet with John Mellencamp that reimagined Van Morrison’s classic, it was never the song that defined her for me. I really began to appreciate her artistry with her second studio album, Peace Beyond Passion, and by the time Bitter arrived in 1999, I was completely sold. To this day, Bitter remains… in my humble opinion… one of thfinest records in her catalog: sensual without ever feeling gratuitous, emotionally devastating without becoming melodramatic. It is, quite simply, one of the sexiest albums I’ve ever heard, even as it wrestles with heartbreak, longing, and vulnerability.
That’s why every new Meshell release feels like an event. Regardless of the direction she chooses, pressing play always means spending time with one of contemporary music’s most distinctive voices. Her rich alto carries an uncommon warmth and intimacy that can make even the sparsest arrangement feel fully inhabited. If you’ve never paid close attention to her voice itself, her duet with Cynthia Erivo on “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” is a wonderful reminder of just how expressive that instrument truly is.
The concept behind Synonym immediately caught my attention. An album built around reinterpretations of beloved songs could easily become an exercise in nostalgia, but the list of collaborators suggests something much more ambitious. This isn’t merely a collection of guest appearances; it’s a gathering of extraordinary artists whose individual identities are strong enough to reshape familiar material. Cynthia Erivo, Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, Robert Glasper, Moses Sumney, WILLOW, Lianne La Havas, Cat Power, Nick Hakim, Madison Cunningham, Emily King, Lizz Wright, Chris Thile, Bill Callahan, Laura Lee of Khruangbin, Destin Conrad, ANOHNI, Evann McIntosh…. I mean… just look at that cross-section of contemporary music. It’s a lineup that speaks not only to Meshell’s stature among her peers, but also to the respect she has earned as an artist whose work consistently prioritizes substance over trend.
In many ways, that recognition feels long overdue. While The Omnichord Real Book and No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin deservedly earned her Grammy Awards, I’ve often felt that the Recording Academy arrived years late to the party. Albums like Bitter have long stood among the most artistically accomplished releases of their era, influencing countless musicians while never receiving the level of mainstream recognition they merited.
If “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” is any indication of what Synonym has in store, this won’t simply be an album of covers. It will be an album of reinterpretations in the truest sense. Rather than treating these songs as sacred texts, Meshell appears determined to uncover new emotional dimensions within them, allowing each performance to converse with its source material instead of merely recreating it. That’s ultimately what excites me most about this project. I want to hear how she bends familiar melodies toward new meanings, how these carefully chosen collaborators illuminate different emotional perspectives, and how songs we’ve known for decades can become something unmistakably, and uniquely, Meshell Ndegeocello.
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