Get to POLL Ya: The Maxwell Album Poll

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.

the cover art, with maxwell submerged in water, is kind of otm

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Saturday, August 18, 2012 7:07 PM (44 minutes ago)

yup

Embrya is amazing, I hadn't heard it before now. So deep, so dreamy, it rivals Love Deluxe.

"Know These Things: Shouldn't You"!!!

omg.... Tim!

I'm a Now and BLACKsummers'night >>> UHS and Embrya fan but the latter is idea doing-dishes-on-Sunday-morning music.

I know it's the latest late pass ever issued, the machine is demanding I insert more coins.

Never too late imo.

Also "Gravity: Pushing to Pull"!!!

all about "drowndeep" imo

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.

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

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.

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.

I do not understand how Embrya is not a universally beloved cornerstone

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

lol look at me sort of expressing the same thought two years ago

"Luxury: Cococure" is dangerous: once listened, it takes permanent residence in your head.

Link plz Brad.

Embrya has become one of my very favourite records.

http://www.mauramagazine.com/article/53ee2e18c873d93509eb5c7b/swelter

technically a free issue but you have to sign in to read it

"drowndeep:hula" is like a hymn sung by angels in atlantis

― ticagrelor rotini (k3vin k.), Tuesday, August 14, 2012 11:47 PM (3 years ago)

ughhhhhh btw this song

Embrya has become one of my very favourite records.

― 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.

"drowndeep" is the shit