ESPERANZA SPALDING - Emily's D+Evolution

Bold, adventurous, and surprisingly touching, this is the kind of LP that could win over everyone from a Prince nut, a Joni Mitchell devotee, a Miles lover, and a Spotify-surfer omnivore. Spalding closes her eyes, takes a massive leap forward, and lands it.

"The album focuses on her vocals, with their wily melodic turns, personal poetry, spoken-word chatters and skewed R&B hooks. But even if they are pop songs, a few could have been composed by Wayne Shorter, and Spalding’s voice has never sounded so assured in its dizzying ascents from mid-range murmurs to falsetto swoops. Her singing variously suggests Kate Bush, Janelle Monae or even a female Jack Bruce with a 21st-century Cream. Unconditional Love is an unconditionally terrific pop ballad (intensified by her thunderous bass guitar), while the weaving Earth to Heaven is a testament to how powerful that voice has become, and the unison bass and guitar ostinato of Funk the Fear is almost as compelling on record as it was live – but for the fact that Matthew Stevens’ exciting guitar playing gets faded much too early." - Guardian

"Like other hugely popular musicians before her who felt commercial pressures beginning to stunt their growth, Spalding has found an alter ego to speak to her more extroverted, creative side. Spalding sings through a muse named Emily, her middle name, though her reasons for doing so aren’t clear-cut. As a character, Emily wants you to buck the system, to fight for peace and tranquility. She wants you to reconnect with your spiritual center, to avoid facades. Emily "is a spirit, or a being, or an aspect who I met, or became aware of," Spalding recently told NPR. "I recognize that my job … is to be her arms and ears and voice and body." As a child, Spalding was curious about acting and created scenarios using movement and dance. So "in a sense," the musician recalled, "I see it as a flashlight into the future." 

The theatrical D+Evolution plays like the culmination of those childhood performances. Spalding's voice retains its warmth and nuance, but she’s thrown herself into these songs with a new gusto. Each song has its own identity, from the unbroken spoken-word flow preceding "Ebony and Ivy," the fist-pumping call-and-response of "Funk the Fear," and the opera-infused histrionics of "I Want It Now." Recorded in front of a small studio audience in Los Angeles, you can almost see Spalding act out these songs as the band—comprised of guitarist and Christian Scott collaborator Matthew Stevens, producer/drummer Karriem Riggins, and others—create thick textures that provide plenty of space for her." - Pitchfork