>The things that caught me immediately were Max's voice and
>the drums. Both are warmer and more human-sounding than any
>Maxwell album before it.
>
>The songwriting is beautiful and smart. LBTO is a love song to
>a lady and to Mother Earth. I heard Max say in an interview
>(BC?) that most of his songs are romance-based on the surface,
>but there are layers of meaning. That blew my mind! All this
>time Max has been slipping in subliminal shit disguised as
>love songs??? Been trying to decode 1990x since it dropped.
>
>It's simultaneously his tightest and most complete. Bsn was
>tight but too short. I wanted MORE. UHS and Embrya were
>complete, but meandered (which is perfect for the right mood).
>And Now was all over the place. I'm perfectly satisfied with
>bSn and I was hit with nothing by solid complete songs.
>
>Before this, I held Max to an Embrya standard. But I'm not in
>my 20s anymore. I don't need another experimental, Massive
>Attack-influenced underwater Sade album. Ain't no album ever
>gonna sound like Embrya again, and it shouldn't. At this
>moment, I need a solid, headphone album that I can also play
>with my wife in the car on a long road trip. Max sounds right
>at home with a live band. He's a funny, playful, smart dude
>(his Twitter, Snap, and Insta are awesome) and this album
>reflects his personality perfectly.
>
>
>

Sometimes, it sounds like it's Embrya 2. The key differences are that he sounds more comfortable doing it and my own ears are more 'ready' for it. And it isn't as long-winded in a good way. For my money, some of his best stuff is on Embrya. Maybe You is my choice of songs to use to intro him to those who don't know.

Whatever it is, I love this album lots after two full listens on the 'good headphones' with no interuptions and a nice set of skip around repeats. Aka I'm gonna be street-teaming. The fall is hard! III is a vintage direct but not really Maxwell uptempo come-on record..Marvin style 'I can do this too' jam. Hostage is so many good things. Listen here. Fingers crossed might be my favorite song on the whole thing. And holy shit at Lake By the Ocean sounding like a huge muscle flex in the cut on the album. And that intro...whoooo. Of all kinds. 1990x. Yeah...jammin. This thing sounds GOOD.

I swear...I've spent so much time over the years 'lamenting' what could've been with the 'neo soul big 3'. You know: Badu, D'Lo, and Maxwell. I'll get to the other two some other time. But hell...I think Maxwell's career makes a lot of sense with the type of artist he is. I'd feel totally differently if he hadn't come back with that ambushing BET awards Simply Beautiful performance and Black. And now this for Summer after the delay and my fears that his falsetto is dying? I was wrong! It's different but it is better.