Me’shell Ndegéocello COMFORT WOMAN (Maverick)

Relative to 2002’s street-savvy Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape, Comfort Woman is a soothing, intimate, and revealing suite executed with the help of expert players (Chris Dave on drums, long-time collaborator Allen Cato on lead guitars) that invokes the musical-sexual prowess of a mid-’70s Marvin Gaye. Island beats, classic reggae/dub rhythms, and a smattering of otherworldly noises make this an intergalactic sound collage during which Ndegéocello is both helpless and ecstatic.

The herbaceous and spacy musical landscape underlines the lyrical content — which is mostly about being lost in the haze of intense romantic love (for example, Tupac’s "Come Smoke My Herb"). The recurring variations on "Love Song" (#1, #2, and #3) hold the concept together as Ndegéocello mixes enraptured crooning ("This is love — this is how I love you") with ritualistic chants ("Forgiveness and love") and spoken-word refrains ("Let love guide you"). Oren Bloedow’s acoustic guitar sparsely decorates the wonderful melody of "Liliquoi Moon" to mirror her melancholy meditation on inheriting her father’s "yearning to fly." In Ndegéocello’s world, romantic love and spiritual seeking are often indivisible; in "Fellowship," she ponders blind devotion: "Would you walk a righteous path without the promise of Heaven?"