Early

Album Review

When listening to this album, remember that it was recorded seven years previously when Muldrow was just 17 years old. When that seeps in, the contents of this album are astounding. No, this isn't the astral-traveling, intense and exploratory, far-reaching Muldrow of Olesi, Sagala, and Umsindo. The title is a telling one — this is "early" Muldrow as a teen, at the dawn of the new millennium, spinning her own version of the new-soul music that was in vogue back then. Songs like "Never a Day in Vain" and "Run Away" are the answer to the question "What if, before Georgia loaded up her spaceship with all her instruments and equipment to blast off to another galaxy, she made a Dwele album?" Since Muldrow is one of the most daring and important (albeit underappreciated) artists of her time, this revealing look into her "early" work is essential. Tunes such as "Break You Down" show the artist developing her unique, patented, singular groove. It's an album that reveals her vocal influences, whether overt (Betty Carter on "Sunset") or subtle (Erykah Badu on "Keep It Real?"). And then there are tracks like "In Love Again" — one of those classic Georgia performances, one without a single vocal repeat and too many bridges to count — that sound like she locked herself in a closet for months with Chaka Khan on loop, only to emerge with her own voice and technique in full bloom on "Let It Go." It's fitting that "Let It Go" appears near the end of the album, right before "Gears (Sing It Again)," which is like a harbinger of things to come. For an artist who wasn't even a legal adult to write, sing, play, and produce virtually every sound on this album is astonishing on so many levels. But then again, this is Georgia we're talking about.