Every so often an artist comes along and feeds my soul with absolute ambrosaic aural amour. And by now you all should know when I bust a move on the alliteration, I mean business.
Jill Scott. The singularly unique and powerfully creative songstress has given us the gift of another view inside her world with her second studio album Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2. Like a warm sweater in the mist of a cool fall breeze, Jill once again wraps her lush vocals around us in a comforting way, vocalizing her soul's highs and lows in a way that makes you feel as if she's talking with you, never at you.
A storyteller at heart, Jill Scott allows us once again to share her life's experiences in her own oral tradition. Striking more than a few chords with tales about relationships with family and beyond, this collection of songs just feels good and familiar; something you'd be hard pressed to say about most albums out today.
Humorously, the album begins with the track sound of a radio tuning into the hit single 'He Loves Me' from her first studio masterpiece and then blends into Jill performing some warm up exercises, which are remixed into a little groove. It's the perfect start on the journey into Jill.
Throughout the next hour of music, weaving stories of strength and weakness with reflections on family life and other more intimate relationships, the world of Jill Scott comes into a focus the way a still pool of water comes to rest after the wind dies down. It turns into a reflection of life, love, and the things that bring people together in this world.
Leaping out of the speakers, a few tracks can nearly take your breath away like that good hot sauce your uncle only brings out on special occasions. 'Bedda At Home' is a story of temptation passing before your eyes, evoking that pulsing feeling of desire. She sings 'Your sexiness and vivacity makes me want to cook my favorite recipe' about an unnamed person. But she knows she has something better at home. All of you reading this who've been there, raise your hand. Yep, me too.
'Can't Explain' tells about hurting someone you're with, and then finding yourself burned by the same thing in your next relationship. Making references to God and karma, and dropping one of the best lines on this album '...just because you loved and lost don't mean stop loving / if you had a nightmare, do you stop dreaming?' this song is strong stuff from deep inside. Sing it girl.
Don't walk, run. Receive the message. Fill your house with the lyrical skills of Jill Scott. And when it's all done, I promise you'll have a warm smile on your face as if you've just spent the day dishing with your best friend on the phone.
Smiling with you in 4/4,
Peter Mavrik