a poll: the miseducation of lauryn hill

shes never sounded like other neo soul artists (ie - new agey, artsy, pretentious) which is what was good about her.

well she wasnt pretentious until that unplugged album.

waht? i like this album, but it's totally pretentious.

What do you mean when you say this is album is pretentious? What are you keying in on here and is "pretentious" really the word you mean to use? (I can get behind "precocious", "bombastic" and "arrogant" but they're all done in a very compelling, positive way.)

Zoomed straight for "Ex-Factor"

DP, I'm pretty sure he's saying that it's not pretentious, i.e. (well she wasnt pretentious until that unplugged album.), although there are plenty of other nu-soul singers who weren't new-agey or artsy or pretentious, so that seems like a red herring in the first place.

Superstar
Final Hour
When It Hurts So Bad
I Used To Love Him
Forgive Them Father

What a dry spell, although the bookends are great.

Uh, those parentheses should have been quote marks. Not sure why that happened.

by pretentious i mean i think it has a sort of overbearing insistence on its own importance -- which is offset by having lots of good-to-great tracks.

Ha Rev, I was talking to tipsy.

I think I make the distinction between "self-important" and "pretentious" here precisely because the album is so great; it's one thing to come across all "this is the baddest shit ever" if you actually release something that is fair-at-best, but when your output matches the swagger that goes with it, you can't really say it's pretending to be something it's not. (Whereas the second album is pretending to be deep and philosophical when it is actually paranoid, crazy, and a little pitiful.)

oh, ha I didn't see tipsy's post for some reason or other

It does have a "this is important cause Lauryn Hill thinks it's important" vibe to it, but fortunately for her she was in such a position at that time that she could get away with it.

this album blows id rather bang out to da real world or diamond princess or unladylike or even gotdamn ms jade than ever spend 2 secs thinkin about lauryn hill ever again

yeah there were other neo soul singers who werent 'pretentious' (im not necessarily using that word as a criticism here) but by and large, the ones who got best known were on some level, ie erykah, dangelo, jill scott, bilal etc. maxwell wasnt, well not til embrya. but lauryn always seemed well apart from those guys (duet with dangelo excepted) - she seemed more in the line of the more popular 60s/70s soul singers rather than the auteur types that badu, dangelo and co were in love with.

B-b-but wouldn't L. Hill count as (and consider herself) an auteur?

These days I wouldn't be surprised of Lauryn considered herself to be a magical princess from the land of Hiphopia.

Ex Factor

Used to go to this pub during lunch and every day the jukebox banged out 'Lost Ones'. barmaid's choice i guess. unfortunately she also loved Californication LP.

that sweet sweet first note of the chorus of Doo Wop is an all-time hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck moment for me. so many great times dancing/listening/singing along to this song, it gets my vote.

Hard not to vote for the Can't Take My Eyes Off You cover.

...but yeah, LOST ONES.

Everything is Everything is a v close 2nd though.

whatta great album -- im goin for doo wop, but the the title song and lost ones are rul rad, too.

Much as I love these songs, this album is killed for me by the stupid 'afrocentric' classroom self-esteem building crapola. Ruined it. Though I'd vote for To Zion, well 2/3 of it, until it gets to that "Marching marching marching" shite.

Lauryn Hill: another good argument against religion.

the middle of the album is a grind too.

i haven't chosen yet, but i just want to say that in my experience, years after the release, any time "ex-factor" is played, any and all women within hearing distance end up singing along to every word.

voted ex factor.

i have never heard this album. maybe i should.

I wish "The Sweetest Thing" from the Love Jones soundtrack was on this -- my favorite Hill ballad.

that whole soundtrack is great.

"The Sweetest Thing" may be my favorite Lauryn Hill song, period.

i liked the remix with the 'Theme From S.W.A.T.' sample

i was hoping ethan would show up here

ex factor

ethan did show up, he hates this album for some reason

bass part on ex factor is dope

i know deej, i saw his post. i meant i'm glad someone showed up to provide some "balance" ; )

I voted "Ex Factor" too.

I'd also sooner bump "Da Real World" or "Diamond Princess" most days but that seems like an odd either/or to me.

Between "Lost Ones" and "To Zion", but somehow I've listened to the latter most so that's it.

doo wop (that thing)

If you read the thread, it was already quite balanced as far as talking about the overall album or even about Hill herself was concerned.

this album is great i don't know what the hell some of you are on about

Quite intereesting (as far as I can tell) that people who heard this when it came out love it, but people who came to it years later don't get what all the fuss is about.

i think ethan was like 10 when this came out

miseducation, da real world and diamond princess were all my favourite albums of their respective years

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I was at a wedding several years back where "Nothing Really Matters" was used for the first dance. That seems important to mention for some reason.

'forgive them father' is really underrated though possibly i'm just a sucker for female rappers slipping into jamaican patois, and fierce denunciations of haterz

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i think ex-factor should've won actually

lol @ the singles stomping everything out. classic album my ass!

but yeah was hoping "ex factor" would take it

uh, maybe it's just that the singles are so so great

it's got classic singles, sure.

i'm amazed that "The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill" didn't get a single vote. how i love that song!

If the singing were shittier it would be a proper rap album

hard to argue with tbh

OK, raise your hand if you think this is the greatest album of all-time. Anybody?

The Misdesignation of Lauryn Hill

For me, one of the greatest songs of all time (the obvious one), and that's enough.

The Score is better

it's funny how POLLing change a situation

the whole apple music list felt very grammy awards-coded and putting this at #1 seals it

It's a great album, and she was a fantastic live performer around the time of its release. That she's never truly followed it up, and that every live performance of hers I've seen over the last decade has juggled brilliance and disaster, is fairly dispiriting.

It was Pitchfork’s number 2 of the 90’s so I expected Top 10 at least. This list felt very much like a mish mash of the top half of those recent Pitchfork 80s/90s album lists.

No Depeche, New Order or Pet Shop Boys in the Apple list!

could it be that it was all so simple then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg2mF0gKtYw

ums otm

For me, one of the greatest songs of all time (the obvious one)

Lost Ones?

"Doo Wop (That Thing)"--I guess not that obvious going by this poll. (Didn't know about the Apple poll that triggered all this.)

First time hearing this album and it’s pretty good (maybe not as good 25 years later but it’s still really well crafted)

I know she sort of went off the rails and has kept releasing music sporadically… anything worth seeking out?

I really liked Unplugged. And the song Lose Myself, off the Surf's Up soundtrack (iirc), is genuinely fantastic

First time hearing this album

Wow! Jealous, but also you missed listening to this album for 25 years, so you should perhaps be jealous of me

I’ve heard the Unplugged album is pretty divisive. Maybe it was more divisive at its time of release coming after all the hype surrounding her and listening to it now with fresh ears it’s a better way to approaching it. Will take some time later in the week to digest it.

At the moment I’m going to dig in this album. I feel stupid ignoring this album for so long. It’s perfectly executed.

Bonus tracks are good too. “Tell Him” was a highlight.

moka-
search: "the sweetest thing" from the love jones ost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y12YXVAYKjE

Miseducation is a fantastic album and like so many records from the late 90s the skits between tracks DRAG AND DRAG AND DRAG AND DRAG

I’ve tried with this album but apart from Forgive Them Father and Nothing Even Matters none of the songs make an impression on me. So I guess could be a great EP.

speaking of, unrelated: one of the most confusing things ever in the liner notes is david axelrod's "tony poem" receiving a sample credit on "every ghetto every city" (one of the better tracks on here, tbh). there's no sample of "tony poem" in that song and i don't think i've ever seen an explanation of how/why that happened. it says the song "contains replayed elements of" tony poem on newer pressings, but uhh? not really? the beat does kind of sound like the breakdown in "tony poem" but that was such an obscure record at the time, i don't think they needed to worry about getting sued. the confusion was compounded when she got in trouble for not giving the musicians on the album their proper credit. but sure, go ahead and list samples that aren't in there????

― I'm ANTIFA and I vote. (Austin), Saturday, June 11, 2022 12:46 PM

semiupdate on this: lol whosampled removed it from their listing completely. i _still_ cannot find any info on why it was listed in the og credits. weird.