Cool cover. What do you think it is? a mirrored foot?

It also works with the butterfly motif of her last album.

I have tilted that thing, have looked at it upside down-down side up, I am telling youn all I have tried the sides.....I keep seing diffrent stuff...
tried every angle, you know just maybe it is a hidddden code or some other thing-CRAZY ME HEY>>>!

-but damn, it is DOPE- I it !!!

quote:

Originally posted by Judd:
matthew, what did maverick pull during the "Bitter" creation?

No reallly I wanna know as well, hey Math???...

peace-
for the record, i was never a producer on any of meshell's records... i was an executive producer, which means i just did all of the budgeting and project management. the main producers, i.e., the people who helped craft the actual music, meshell has worked with over the years are david gamson, bob power, craig street and cato. i think she did this one solo.

re: maverick's best of, they expressed a desire to do such a project in 2005; the idea, though, was to have meshell's involvement, including adding some new material and to time the project in a way that would not saturate the market vis a vis her new album(s). i don't know if that is still on the table... that may depend on how well this new project does.

peace
kt

Thanks kt, for the great nuggets of info. I knew there had to be some talk of a best of, and its good to know that Meshell will be in the mix. Long time, please don't be a stranger.........Peace

one additional comment. meshell is not prince... she has never had 24 hour studio access or the kind of payroll available to keep her band ready to record on a whim. also, she has always been clear that she needs breaks from making music... that she needs to go and live life between writing music so that she actually has something to write about. accordingly, i think it is no where close to accurate to project that meshell has 300-500 unreleased songs stashed somewhere. in all of the projects i have been around, there have been maybe 4 demos or recorded tracks per album that have not made the final album. there have been maybe a dozen other tracks i have heard and another two dozen sketches (maybe just drum beats or bass lines, but nothing close to a fully developed demo)that will likely never see the light of day. i'd be surprised if there are 30-40 viable songs that are unreleased due to self-editing by meshell. there are about 10 that i really love and wish she would release one day.

all that to say, meshell is a musical genius, but we do not have to stamp her with purple productivity to prove that point.

peace,
kt

hey Darek, nice catch on that Paradise Promo over there! That Paradise promo should be a collectors item now if they are really planning on re-mixing the music for the official release. I'm jealous (I'm curious too, does the Paridise promo have a cover or is it blank?)

KT, it's always good to hear from you (and not JUST because you have unique and often exclusive inside info on our girl, but regardless of that, your perspectives themselves are always interesting & refreshing). Thanks again, and like feenin said, don't be a stranger here...

The TWHMMTMTIA Cover...
i think someone may have already suggested this, but we should have a contest to try to guess what the heck that is on the cover...it's intriguing to me becuase i'm assuming its not just a random image ...im assuming that it was picked for a reason and that it somehow relates to the songs within...but i honestly have no clue WHAT that image is. I keep looking at it trying to figure it out...but i got nothin yet.

I ROGER THAT!!!

This will be a good one.

-I'm still trying to figure it out as it is.

even mailed it to some of my friends and coleuges....needless to say they are just as dazed...

so, is anyone else in on this???

quote:

Originally posted by kt:
one additional comment. meshell is not prince... she has never had 24 hour studio access or the kind of payroll available to keep her band ready to record on a whim. also, she has always been clear that she needs breaks from making music... that she needs to go and live life between writing music so that she actually has something to write about. accordingly, i think it is no where close to accurate to project that meshell has 300-500 unreleased songs stashed somewhere. in all of the projects i have been around, there have been maybe 4 demos or recorded tracks per album that have not made the final album. there have been maybe a dozen other tracks i have heard and another two dozen sketches (maybe just drum beats or bass lines, but nothing close to a fully developed demo)that will likely never see the light of day. i'd be surprised if there are 30-40 viable songs that are unreleased due to self-editing by meshell. there are about 10 that i really love and wish she would release one day.



peace,
kt

That's great news kt, sounds like a 2 disc best of (with those ten songs)to me.
My dreams seem closer and closer.

Hey Derek,
Paradise has a "no-cover" (just black text: "Meshell Ndegeocello Paradise" on white paper sleeve and a warning in German - Achtung dies is nicht das Cover ;-) and a track listing (with wrong time for Elliptical 2:45 i.o. 5:30) on the back-side and the disc itself + legal warnings in German.
No clues here for the meaning of the actual cover... I think I see bamboo sticks - perhaps an old African instrument???
regards, D.
BTW I would agree with Matthew that on certain dense passages Paradise perhaps could sound better. However for the remaining 90% of the record no complaints from me (just listened to the entire album today).

quote:

Originally posted by matthew:
that song was left off the album for some reason. i think i speak on everyone's behalf when i say that it will hopefully be on a future release.

Well I see another song has been omitted from Meshells cd("middle earth"). Come on, I hope this means the music wil be released faster, like yearly maybe. It seems the live shows are a sampleling ground for dropping some of the music, but not nessarily what we'll see on the final release. Still can't wait for the new cd.

Middle Earth is a very good song... sorry to see it omitted from the official release. I find it really strange because the CD will be just 45 minutes long or so... (unless there are some remixes and surprises)

her cds (other than cookie) have always been very short. (imo)

and "cookie" could/should've been shorter imo. (minus the rockwilder remix of "pocketbook.") i'm still upset with how maverick handled that...

Hi... I just figured that I would put my two cents into all of this. I just bought a copy of the Article 3 ( yea, I know, im really late) and I must say that I enjoyed it. Just wished it were a little longer. But I could really feel the intensity of the message that Meshell was trying to put across to her listeners-to me. Yes, her music is overwhelmingly electronic and artificial in that the only natural sounds come from the voices traveling within air, but it kind of parallels the message in Haditha. Yes, it will be interesting or even disappointing to see/hear her "recreate" the same feeling on stage, but she is moving withe the times and reflecting the elements around her. I don't think that she has become consumed by today's artificial sound, but then again, how much music out there is really natural. Only classical/traditional and stuff you'll hear in the fields of Borneo or Marrakesh.
anyhow, I liked this little appetizer. I can't wait to hear the real deal.

Hey, here we go on the count down of days to the latest Meshell masterpiece . But Matthew, I'm concerned about something that I found out while checking on the latest release at amazon. I observed that there were 3 types of releases. An Import, a domestic and a deluxe version. So do you know what this deluxe edition will include?

it's been a couple months, so i'll make that semi-regular announcement that i make.

unless it's mentioned on this website, i know nothing.

i've never been a big fan of just being told something and not being allowed to share it with the rest of her admirers - especially since info is so rare in the first place. that and the ONLY purpose of this website is to get info out to her admirers... not withhold it.

i've pretty much made that clear with most of her managers, so unless it's on this (or the myspace page), i don't know jack - and probably won't unless another admirer posts info about it in the polylogue or via email.

Okay, here's what I have so far:

quote:

The deluxe package will contain a bonus track + be a limited edition (of 1000) soft pack.
The regular version will be in a jewel case and not have the bonus track.

No word yet on if the "soft pack" will include a thong or not...

Joking aside, I did put in another small follow-up request to confirm that the bonus track on the Japanese release is still going to be "A Different Girl" (see the Discography portion of this website for that info) and if the European release will be the same as the non-deluxe U.S. release.

Hopefully I'll hear something back ASAP, because as soon as I make the announcement on MySpace, I'm going to have nearly 40,000 friends asking me which one to order. I'd like to be able to just make the info available, rather than have to tell hundreds of people to do what I did (order all versions to find out for themselves...)

I find it interesting also that Amazon doesn't have the artwork up yet. Has it been changed? Worse case scenario, I'll have a few of my questions answered once I receive the Japanese version in the mail.

Edit: I took the liberty to (sort of) hack Amazon's listings for the new album and put the artwork up...

Perhaps I am missing something, but I can't see a "deluxe" version on amazon.com... which one would it be - the one selling for 34.49 or 17.98? Neither has a listing of songs that would indicate a bonus track.
I've looked at the Japanese Amazon - release date is August 22 alas the track listing shows no bonus track! Same for Japanese HMV... Nevertheless I have ordered at HMV (for those interested, the site has an English version and the price Y2500+ shipping isn't bad).

hey Darek,
yeah i believe the 17.98 version originally had a 'dx' or 'dux' or 'dlx' (or something along those lines) in the sub headline, but it has since been removed. I never saw a track listing on it at Amazon though...

The $17.98 one had an error in the title, so I fixed that but forgot to add the (Deluxe) portion back so I'll do that now. I'll blame the Percoset this time around.

Edit: They didn't make my changes (correcting the spelling of her name, adding "The" to the title of the import version -- so it probably wasn't something I did (why Dlx disappeared).

P.S. The reason this site links to Amazon is because Amazon pays a tiny amount when someone makes a purchase through this site at Amazon. It has made it possible for me to never put advertisements up, and makes it possible to keep the site online in case Derek ever stops supporting it with his donations. So that's why there's no link to HMV (especially when the same items are available at Amazon with free shipping, etc.)

YAY! We finally get a release date. It'l be end of September before you know it!

Got my Japanese copy yesterday... 13 tracks indeed...

(and I've ordered the deluxe version through FMH - thanks Matthew for clarifying this mess with versions)

right on i'm glad people are receiving their copies so quickly...

PLEASE let us know if there's any difference in the sound, time length, etc of the songs on your promo and official copy

quote:

PLEASE let us know if there's any difference in the sound, time length, etc of the songs on your promo and official copy

I'll do this and post here next week

thanks Darek

just looking at the track times, it seems as though 'solomon' and 'relief' are both approximately 30 seconds longer each...

i'm looking forward to hearing the differences...