Confession: I haven't heard Now apart from a few tracks. Worth buying?
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 00:32 (eleven years ago) link
i don't know but i love "get to know ya"
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 00:36 (eleven years ago) link
more and more i feel like "Lifetime" might be his best single
― Pollopolicía (some dude), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 00:39 (eleven years ago) link
He's yet to make anything below a mini-masterpiece.
Embrya is his supreme work, though.
― Austin, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 00:53 (eleven years ago) link
Embrya, easily
― REV LION (The Reverend), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 01:30 (eleven years ago) link
and then Now
Now is a very underrated album.
'Silently', 'For Lovers Only' and 'No One' are excellent.
― Austin, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 01:39 (eleven years ago) link
Signed up three new accounts so I could vote for all four.
― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 03:58 (eleven years ago) link
#'s 1, 4, 3 and then the 2nd album is how I'd vote. But all 4 are great.
― jetfan, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
^^^
― prolego, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 18:59 (eleven years ago) link
i fucking love embrya but
the '09 album is a fucking drug to me
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 19:01 (eleven years ago) link
rev and i were discussing on twitter recently how embrya is way underrated
"luxury:cococure" might be my favourite maxwell SONG
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 19:02 (eleven years ago) link
ooh, I feel like the competition is stiffer in that category
― REV LION (The Reverend), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 19:05 (eleven years ago) link
oh for sure
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 19:10 (eleven years ago) link
Agree with everyone saying how great all four albums are. I always thought Embrya was easily the weakest but after listening to it last night I may well vote for it.
Think my order would go,
Embrya Maxwell's Urban Hang SuiteBLACKsummers'nightNow
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 22:16 (eleven years ago) link
"lifetime" is an amazing amazing single. i am not familiar with maxwell's albums other than BLACKsummers'night. for me it was a very nice vibey kinda album but most of it didn't really stick with me in the long run.
― teledyldonix, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 22:22 (eleven years ago) link
been listening to a lot of maxwell to inform my eventual vote in this poll; p sure I am in love
― horseshoe, Tuesday, 14 August 2012 22:23 (eleven years ago) link
*shifts nervously* i've never heard embrya before. hooooly shit
"drowndeep:hula" is like a hymn sung by angels in atlantis
― ticagrelor rotini (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 15 August 2012 03:47 (eleven years ago) link
This is true of a lot of modern soul artists, but I feel like the masses aren't nearly aware enough of this guy and don't fully appreciate how great he is. He's a star, relatively, but he should be regarded as a living legend. He's one of the G.O.A.T.
― Evan R, Wednesday, 15 August 2012 19:22 (eleven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Friday, 17 August 2012 00:01 (eleven years ago) link
EMBRYA!
― Aceveda (admrl), Friday, 17 August 2012 00:10 (eleven years ago) link
Truth.
― Austin, Friday, 17 August 2012 00:12 (eleven years ago) link
i'm not ready to vote yet!!!!
― horseshoe, Friday, 17 August 2012 00:47 (eleven years ago) link
you have one more day!!
― ticagrelor rotini (k3vin k.), Friday, 17 August 2012 04:52 (eleven years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Saturday, 18 August 2012 00:01 (eleven years ago) link
the album I haven't heard got zero votes
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 August 2012 03:47 (eleven years ago) link
Now is good and didn't deserve no votes but it is his weakest, I can see why it came last. Got to Know Ya, Lifetime and This Woman's Work are all great songs.
― Kitchen Person, Saturday, 18 August 2012 08:43 (eleven years ago) link
Kinda shocked; had no idea Now was so barely regarded. That whole album sounds like heaven to me, and it has some of his best songs. I would have proudly voted for it if BLACKSummer'snight didn't exist.
― Evan R, Saturday, 18 August 2012 16:05 (eleven years ago) link
That whole album sounds like heaven to me, and it has some of his best songs. I would have proudly voted for it if BLACKSummer'snight Embrya didn't exist.
― Vagelis (The Reverend), Saturday, 18 August 2012 18:30 (eleven years ago) link
Damn, I got my work cut out for me on Embrya. I've listened to it a few times and taken nothing away from it (it sounded like Maxwell made a Joan or Arc album or something) but I need to spend some time with it b/c of all the recs here.
I may have to buy a copy if I'm gonna commit myself to cracking it; just streaming it when I can probably isn't going to be enough.
― Evan R, Saturday, 18 August 2012 21:13 (eleven years ago) link
no question for me that "Luxury" is the gem.
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 August 2012 21:16 (eleven years ago) link
i think embrya can seem totally insular at first but it really explores its specific mood in a way i can't really pin to another record
the cover art, with maxwell submerged in water, is kind of otm
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, 18 August 2012 23:07 (eleven years ago) link
The thing with Embrya is that it is a very cerebral album. It's got a lot of sneaky, nuanced parts going on in the arrangements and conceptual stuff in the lyrics. I mean, any album that has a zero track with completely esoteric narration over it, well, you know you're in for a heavy affair.
And, if the poll allowed for a #2 pick, mine would have been Now.
― Austin, Saturday, 18 August 2012 23:36 (eleven years ago) link
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, August 18, 2012 7:07 PM (44 minutes ago)
yup
― ticagrelor rotini (k3vin k.), Saturday, 18 August 2012 23:52 (eleven years ago) link
Embrya is amazing, I hadn't heard it before now. So deep, so dreamy, it rivals Love Deluxe.
"Know These Things: Shouldn't You"!!!
― Tim F, Saturday, 9 February 2013 21:29 (eleven years ago) link
omg.... Tim!
― The Reverend, Saturday, 9 February 2013 21:35 (eleven years ago) link
I'm a Now and BLACKsummers'night >>> UHS and Embrya fan but the latter is idea doing-dishes-on-Sunday-morning music.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 February 2013 21:37 (eleven years ago) link
I know it's the latest late pass ever issued, the machine is demanding I insert more coins.
― Tim F, Saturday, 9 February 2013 21:37 (eleven years ago) link
Never too late imo.
― skeet-skeet-gate (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Saturday, 9 February 2013 21:38 (eleven years ago) link
Also "Gravity: Pushing to Pull"!!!
― Tim F, Saturday, 9 February 2013 21:41 (eleven years ago) link
all about "drowndeep" imo
― manti 乒乓 (k3vin k.), Saturday, 9 February 2013 21:59 (eleven years ago) link
Seriously so ridic that i have not had this album in my life until now.
I spent several years at the end of the 90s and beginnings of the 00s mostly thinking of neo-soul as something that needed to be resisted (the ~deep vibes~ of its era) and even though i got over that inane false binary ages ago I'm still coming across evidence of the damage it did to my tastes.
― Tim F, Monday, 11 February 2013 01:04 (eleven years ago) link
the music press was not kind to neo-soul: the praise for it made it sound so bland, dry and ~authentic~ (and usually compared it negatively to mainstream shiny r&b), the criticisms of it were so callow and ignorant
― lex pretend, Monday, 11 February 2013 11:43 (eleven years ago) link
The thing is a lot of neo-soul was just as modernist as any of the shiny mainstream r&b (Embrya included), but the press acted as if it was retro when it was really about updating older styles, not recreating them.
― The Reverend, Monday, 11 February 2013 15:48 (eleven years ago) link
Like, you couldn't mistake Embrya for a Maze record, as clearly as Max wears their influence, because it sounds like it was made circa 2000 and quite intentionally so.
― The Reverend, Monday, 11 February 2013 15:50 (eleven years ago) link
I do not understand how Embrya is not a universally beloved cornerstone
― The Reverend, Thursday, 11 September 2014 11:03 (nine years ago) link
had to write about maxwell last month and it was a nice excuse to listen to embrya for a few days in a row. very few records as immersive
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 September 2014 11:15 (nine years ago) link
lol look at me sort of expressing the same thought two years ago
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 September 2014 11:16 (nine years ago) link
"Luxury: Cococure" is dangerous: once listened, it takes permanent residence in your head.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 September 2014 11:51 (nine years ago) link
Link plz Brad.
Embrya has become one of my very favourite records.
― Tim F, Thursday, 11 September 2014 15:13 (nine years ago) link
http://www.mauramagazine.com/article/53ee2e18c873d93509eb5c7b/swelter
technically a free issue but you have to sign in to read it
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Thursday, 11 September 2014 15:26 (nine years ago) link
― ticagrelor rotini (k3vin k.), Tuesday, August 14, 2012 11:47 PM (3 years ago)
ughhhhhh btw this song
― k3vin k., Monday, 27 June 2016 04:31 (seven years ago) link
― Tim F, Thursday, September 11, 2014 3:13 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Still ^^^^^
I feel like it's such a unique record. Weirdly I almost get a (late era) Leonard Cohen vibe from it, that sense of being super gentle and super heavy at the same time.
― Tim F, Monday, 27 June 2016 04:51 (seven years ago) link
"drowndeep" is the shit
― k3vin k., Monday, 27 June 2016 06:23 (seven years ago) link