Maxwell, Now Full Album Zip
Jessica Wilson
Now is the third studio album by American R&B singer Maxwell. It was released on August 14, 2001, by Columbia Records.[1] Following the lukewarm critical reception of his 1998 record Embrya, Maxwell pursued a different direction while recording Now, abandoning the conceptual style of his previous albums.[2]
Now received positive reviews and became Maxwell's first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200, selling over 296,000 units in the U.S. in the first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's third single "This Woman's Work", a live staple of Maxwell's,[3] charted at number 58 on the Hot 100 and at number 16 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[4][5] Now was Maxwell's last album before an eight-year hiatus, which culminated in the release of his fourth studio album BLACKsummers'night (2009).[6]
Now received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 78, based on 11 reviews.[17] In Entertainment Weekly, Tom Sinclair found Maxwell's New Age spiritual musings to be outside the R&B mainstream and said "as mellowed-out as much of Now is, it's definitely not aural wallpaper, but a cohesive effort that rewards repeated listenings".[10] Boston Herald critic Sarah Rodman said Maxwell had made the "truly terrific" Prince album the artist himself was no longer making while continuing to "distinguish himself from the current glut of overwrought and under- erotic r & b lotharios with his retro, almost absurdly soulful ways".[8] Daryl Easlea from BBC Music highlighted the cover of the 1989 Kate Bush song "This Woman's Work" and deemed the album "grown-up, frequently gorgeous music that epitomises the very best in neo-soul".[18] Greg Kot from the Chicago Tribune found Maxwell's lyrics far more straightforward than Embrya's "almost impenetrable" songs, while applauding his ability as a singer to achieve an "enlightened empathy" that "neither panders nor demands" to his fictitious lovers.[19] James Hunter wrote in The Village Voice that Maxwell and Stuart Matthewman had avoided the gratuitous productions of Embrya in favor of more grounded music, against which the singer performed masterfully. "He is, as throughout Now, a soul singer who knows precisely what he's doing", Hunter wrote.[20] Fellow Village Voice critic Robert Christgau gave Now an "honorable mention" in his review column, singling out "Temporary Nite", "This Woman's Work", and "Lifetime" as its best songs, while writing that Maxwell "can't outbeat D'Angelo, so he works on outsinging and outsonging him".[21]
In a less enthusiastic review for PopMatters, Mark Anthony Neal said Now was one of 2001's "most accomplished R&B recordings", but qualified his praise by finding some of the music unadventurous and not indicative of the artistic maturity Maxwell seemed to show on Embrya.[1] Miles Marshall Lewis was more critical in LA Weekly, believing the singer was "not Prince" and had regressed musically with Now, throughout which "the quiet storm of Maxwell's signature sound becomes damn near somnolent".[22] Teresa Wiltz of The Washington Post said the record predictably followed his previous albums' formula of "moody musings" on romance and heartbreak, funky musical backdrops, and pleading vocals; Wiltz lamented Maxwell's inability to "stretch beyond his self-imposed limits" on record, as she believed he had "to spectacular effect" at his concerts.[23]
On physical copies, "Get to Know Ya" is separated into two tracks: the first four seconds on track 1, followed by the rest of the song on track 2. The album packaging simply lists the song as track 1, with "Lifetime" as track 3. On digital copies, "Get to Know Ya" is one track, as listed above.
Well, the project is very much still me, and has my personal stamp on it, but there are chord qualities and time signatures that appear in every single tune, even if just for a short bit of time. You hear callbacks to each tune, very subtly at times, which ties it all together.
Question #3: All 12 of your albums have been original tunes! Having written so much original music, what does your composition process look like?
I wish I had an easy answer for that but my composition process varies from day to day and week to week. There are some compositions that just come to me and I write down within a matter of minutes. Others take months or even sometimes years with me walking away from it, and returning later with more of a focus.
For this particular album, we had a series of rehearsals, but we also would sit down and have some food and beverages, and I would tell them the stories behind the tunes. I just thought it was cool for them to know that and it did help and how they approached certain elements of certain tunes.
I've spent the last few weeks trying to work out whether not enough people listen to Imperial Teen or whether they do and I just don't know about it: The band spent some time opening for The Breeders last year, so it seems as if plenty of you will at least have heard their name. Most of the time I'm solidly convinced that they're a fantastic band, and sometimes I imagine they should be as widely enjoyed as The Strokes.
It is, after all, my personal theory that The Strokes are the most successful band in this "new rock revolution" business because they're really more of a pop band: No matter what people say, they come off more like Blondie or The Romantics than The Velvet Underground. The same could be said of Imperial Teen, only they're about ten times more interesting. They're from San Francisco; they're two women and two men, one of whom used to be in Faith No More and the other of whom is like a pissier, more hyperactive Pat Smear; and some of them-- if I'm not mistaken-- are gay, a fact that fuels some of the odd gender-play in their lyrics: This is a band whose first single's big hook went, "Take it like a man, boy," and who later made a rhetorical argument out of, "Why you gotta be so proud?/ I'm the one with lipstick on."
Also they're sly and bratty and tight: Their songs are all crunchy new-wave guitars, minimalist Pixies-style pop riffs, and cute, sneery harmonies. The point is defiantly not revolution: it's personality, and bite, and the way their melodies repeat and gather sort of hypnotically. They're just deliciously bratty: Those of you who understand what a landmark the Violent Femmes' debut was in the history of Perfect Records for Snotty Mopey Teenagers may be interested to know that Seasick, Imperial Teen's debut, seemed worth putting on the same shelf, only without the baggage of everyone finding "Blister in the Sun" so damned cute. It's no accident that whatever A&R; guy thought Imperial Teen could be huge got them a spot on the soundtrack of the Heathers knock-off Jawbreaker-- the new-wavy teen neurosis surrounding these four is just palpable.
So they're a special little band-- I get a bit weepy when I see Seasick in bargain bins-- and with this disc, they've become a special little band with a pretty run-of-mill live album under their belts. I've wound up seeing them live a couple times, and both shows were fantastic: Their crunch was big and warm and enveloping, their stage presence massive. Live at Maxwell's doesn't really capture that-- even when they sound completely on-- which makes the release more effective as a simple re-cap for the fans.
To that end, the band plays a great-hits collection of material culled pretty evenly from their three full-lengths: Seasick, What is Not to Love?, and On. By that last one, their range was expanding-- more ambitious songwriting, some keyboards-- but they play the older material straight, drawing those little opening-riff cheers from an audience waiting for its favorites. That means kicking off with the swinging-Pixies snot-fest "The Beginning" ("You're fucking movie stars?/ Well, I'm fucking congressmen"), then jumping into the coy, driving repetition of "Ivanka". "Lipstick" cracks its way up to a jangling peak; "Butch", the heart and soul of Seasick, gets taken care of; "Yoo-Hoo" gets an extra helping of sarcasm. Most promisingly, those more complex new cuts-- choppy go-go on "Baby", 60s pop on "City Song"-- sound good as well.
So it's one of those relatively standard live albums that no one really needs, but it's served its purpose: It's given me a chance to humbly ask you, maybe as a personal favor to me, to check out a few proper Imperial Teen album tracks. Only if you have a little spare time-- no pressure. Plenty of their songs sound like The Strokes' best singles, only coming from a better world where pop music is made mostly by angstful geeks with gender-identity issues. Their albums might not even be that expensive, since I'm pretty sure people aren't paying enough attention to them-- and I'm sure you can figure out a way to sample "Lipstick" or "Ivanka" or "The Beginning" if you try hard enough.
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Maxwell Friedman is already coming into his own. The fifteen-year-old Bend Senior High School freshman has somehow figured out how to balance being a piano prodigy with being a teenager. He has recently released his first album, Beyond Neblar (Live In Bend), with the Maxwell Friedman Group (MFG). The album was recorded live at McMenamins Old St. Francis School and features nine tracks, seven of which are originals that Friedman penned himself. Amidst his busy schedule, Friedman found time to sit down with Bend Magazine to discuss his invitation to the High Sierra Music festival and where he plans to head in the future.
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