A Practice of Calm

There are a few albums that I’ve listened to countless times but couldn’t tell you the names of any songs. I think this is a feature and not a bug. Some records, you come by because you’re already a fan of the artist and the album is forthcoming and you’ve been waiting with short gasps until the drop. By the time the album is released you’re so ready to dive so deep into the project and you look at the liner notes or track listings, or writing or social posts or what have you. The point is this is the type of album that comes in the wake of great anticipation, so you pour your entire self into it with great dedication. I’m definitely like that. So many new albums came out and are coming out this year, I’m like a dainty bull in a candy shop, just licking my paws after every bite. These are exciting times, but that’s not the type of album I’m talking about today. The focus here is the album that you know very little about, press play, and just absorb. The album you play over and over and never really stop to see the track listing, or the credits or any other information besides the actual music, from beginning to end. There’s one album in my collection that I’ve played many Sunday mornings but until I began writing this, I’d never looked at these song titles.

My first intro to Maxwell was the song Ascension from his first album Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite. That dropped in 1996 so I was still in high school and heard it from radios and boomboxes all over the Bronx. By this point I was phasing out of my love for R&B. Most of my first cassettes or CDs were R&B. I had TLC, Jodeci, SWV, Silk, H-town, Shai, Xscape, Boyz II Men, Montell Jordan, Carl Thomas, Mary J Blige, and many more. But then I began DJing latino Jehovah Witness parties and most of the music played there was Merengue, Salsa, Bachata, Cumbia and some light pop house, which became obsessions for a few years. All of it had to have appropriate lyrics that weren’t sexually suggestive. I found the gray area and hovered there until someone would ask me to change a specific song cause it might be about… sex…Shhhhhh. A couple of years into it, I started DJing non-JW events, which would eventually get me in trouble, but those parties added Dancehall, Reggaeton, Spanish Rap, and some dance friendly hip hop to my repertoire. Back then in the Bronx, music was very segregated by groups, and I was mostly hanging with immigrant latinxers. Before Gasolina was a hit, NY born latinés weren’t really listening to reggaeton until new young immigrants brought it with them from countries of origin. For me it was my step siblings who brought this music with them from the Dominican Republic, where it was very popular because the government banned it for a bit. Those same siblings would also introduce me to Air Supply, Chicago, Hall & Oats and much other music that I had previously not consider.  But here I go again falling into mole holes, all that to say, by the time Maxwell was hitting hard, I wasn’t checking R&B. 

Maxwell’s cover of This Woman’s Work was big for me. I wouldn’t know it was a Kate Bush song for years after its release. When this song dropped it was the golden age of file sharing, and with limited computer space, I only downloaded the songs I wanted and paid little attention to anything full albums. I played This Woman’s Work over and over again, paying little attention to lyrics, but always shedding a couple of tears. There was something sonically pleasing in his falsetto that hooked me. I didn’t care what he said back then, I just knew there was something so soothing about this song and his voice and I loved him for it. But besides Fortunate from the 1999 Life soundtrack, I didn’t check any other of his projects for a while. 

My first spouse loves R&B, and while I appreciated it, I was in my “I don’t like popular things” phase. By this time in the late 2000’s I was DJing a lot of different world bass heavy music and listening to all genres, but I stayed away from the popular. I missed a lot of great music because of this blindside. A lot of the music I was consuming was purchased at The Bowery Poetry Club where I worked, or other music shows I went to. I was a bit of an Art Star Snob. Fortunately for me my ex-wife didn’t share my naive sensibilities and always played the new shit she was digging in the car. For a while I was a contrarian about everything she listened to. I was really horrible and annoying about it too. In retrospect I’m really glad she persisted because in 2009 when BLACKsummers'night came out, she had it on heavy rotation in the red corolla. I became obsessed with this album. How could somebody make cheating sound so sexy? For years I looked up to this album, but now its subject matter is a little harder to swallow. It’s still my favorite album of his, but when I once saw it as grown up and sexy, now I find it incredibly tragic, which is why this is not my Sunday morning record this week. I find it better suited for Thursday thru Saturday afternoon or evening. 

While I was deeply in love with that album and I was crate digging somewhere I copped a used Maxwell album on sale. I didn’t know what album it was as the title wasn’t displayed in large enough letters for my feeble eyes to decipher. I just knew I wanted more Maxwell. I don’t remember listening to it right away, but at some point this became one of my favorite chill out albums. I play it during lazy rainy mornings, or lazy sunny mornings. It’s never an activity record. Not for cleaning or cooking or anything like that. This record is a sonic chill wave that begs the listener to take a load off and ride the vibes. It relaxes my body and mind and puts me in a hazy daze of calm. It’s also a great album to share with someone you are intimate with. I don’t mean sex, but it works for that too. I mean it’s a great album to play when you’re laying or cuddling with someone and you just want to hide from the rest of the world together and make yourself an isolated love castle. So with no further ado, this week’s Sunday Morning Record is the 1998 Embrya by Maxwell.

I must admit I don’t pay too much attention to the lyrics in this one. Because of this and the fact that I didn’t know these songs’ names, I’m going to focus on records by side. The album is made up of two records, so I'll go through sides A1, A2, B1 and B2. B2 will be the easiest since it's only one song. Let’s dive into now, shall we?

A1 - 00. Gestation:Mythos, 01. Everwanting:To Want You To Want, 02. I’m You:You Are Me and We Are You (pt me & you), 03. Luxury:Cococure

The first side begins with a beat I thought was straight out of the Bad Boy remix of 112’s Only You. I’m always tempted to say “I thought I told you that we wont stop”. But the intro goes right into the first song and blooms right open. Every instrument added to the beat is another petal opening up and embracing the sun. Maxwell's voice joins the song as if jumping onto a treadmill already going, programmed to a light walk through the park. He’s already walking when he joins with a steady and precise pace. Like slow walking down an airport walkway and looking mad cool as you do it. When the song ends, there’s a full stop before the next one begins but they still feel to be parts of a whole, not individual projects. They could have been easily mixed together to form a longer song, but that’s not necessary, you feel the stop and the connection. This happens throughout the album. Then Maxwell starts singing in Spanish which always surprises me when an American recording artist does that. Then I found out Maxwell is Haitian and Puerto Rican from Brooklyn, which makes perfect sense. When you grow up with multiple languages you can easily slip from one to another in the same thought. This first side is enough to convince anyone to keep going. 

A2 - 04. Drowndeep:Hula, 05. Matrimony:Maybe You, 06. Arroz Con Pollo

This is a very smooth album, as I’ve said before, but he smooths it out a little more at every literal turn. This sides starts just a little slower than the last. The first song on this side feels like the most direct to the audience. Here the words are a little more audible as the music rides just underneath the lyrics until it crescendos into a perfect merger before slightly overtaking the them and stopping all together into an ambient sound, then a bass joins and the rest of the instruments cascade into the song. This isn’t a mere verse change or bridge turn. The song starts again while still continuing. A new vigor awakens. Not like barbarian vigor, but with the steady determination of a ray of sun, traveling so far to warm so many. I love that song.

The side continues to with a song that sounds super funky and silky and exactly like that time you felt the coolest in life. Please don’t pay too much attention to the lyrics. Like many R&B songs of past, and present, these words might have pure intentions, but are draped in a young heart's idea of how the world works. You might be into that, and there would be nothing wrong with it. However I don’t see things in quite the same polarities any longer. In the erotic messiness of BLACKsummers'night, Maxwell himself confirms that he doesn’t see the world like that either. But the song is dope and it leads right into Arroz Con Pollo which is kinda the band jamming out in a continuation of the last song with no words and more trumpets. Have I told you about my love of horns? I love horns. 

A3 - 07. Know These things:Shouldn’t You, 08. Submerge:Till We Become The Sun, 09. Gravity: Pushing To Pull, 10. EACHHOUREACHSECONDEACHMINUTEEACHDAY:OF MY LIFE

The second record’s side one, also known as the third side, starts with the slowest song of the album. Not really my favorite but it’s not bad at all, and kinda serves as a perfect palate cleanser. I’m sure this is someone’s favorite song, so no skips okay. Fret not cause this slow down goes right into a song beginning with a bassline that feels dub inspired. I think it's played at double time, with a soft beat on top. Like this could be drum & bass if it were turnt up a bit. His singing continues to be as measured as with the last joint. This creates a subdued frenzy with a massive zenith.

There’s a curve effect coming to the end of the album. It intensifies on its way to the finish line, giving us some very interesting music, with electric violins and some great effects. With no voice this song would have definitely been included in a chill house compilation circa 2003. But we’re lucky to have Maxwell who will elevate any track on Vox. He’s not a song hog though. Sometimes he’s the accompaniment and the band is lead. This side ends with the last song with vocals on the album, and it is horny as heck. Not in the brass sense either. This is the song that would make your parents look back to you and say “is this what we’re listening to”, in either a disapproving way, or in a “I’m a parent but I like sex too” type of way. Please choose your own adventure.    

A4 - 11. Embrya

I’m not yet a Maxwell completist but I have noticed that Maxwell loves an instrumental to send an album off. This is a soundscape instrumental with maybe a beating heart at the center. It’s kinda weird though. I don’t always play this side. I mean it’s a three minute song on one side of a record that’s over after that. I can’t even sit down and enjoy it for long because I know I have to get back up. Aww shucks, I didn’t want to end this on a sad note but if you have this on wax, I don’t see a need to play it to the end. The last side is about twenty three minutes long, and then you flip to get two minutes and fifty seven seconds of soundscape? I’m good, but thanks for a dope album. If you’re listening to this via stream or on a cd or cassette, might as well make it to the end, I mean it’s only two minutes and fifty seven seconds right? Sit it out. It’s a great album. 

Embrya is a gem of a sophomore album for any artist. It shows a willingness to grow and spread while giving folks an elevated quality of what was served in the first venture. Of all his albums, this is the perfect Sunday morning record. It has everything the Sunday morning mode is about. This mode can be praise, or meditation, or contemplation, or relaxation. This mode is the time you take for yourself before you greet the world, before you begin a new week, or routine. That’s what Sunday morning records provide me. A way to practice calm. Calm is something the whole world could use more of. So if you’re able to give yourself calm, and play an album at the same time, I highly recommend Embrya by Maxwell. 

Please enjoy your Sunday morning and have a great week.