Erykah Badu's husky drawl is one of pop music's most compelling sounds. She's also R&B's most dedicated bohemian eccentric, as she proves once more on New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh. Her last album, 2008's New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War, was an electronica-based departure from the neo-soul warmth that made her a star. Part Two revives Badu's romantic side, and at its best it places her on a sun-splashed day in 1972: On the gorgeous "Window Seat," her supremely mellow voice is awash in jazzy Fender Rhodes keyboards and loping funk-soul grooves.
Problem is, Badu seems so taken by hazy texture — and so determined to play the weirdo — that she's neglected to write many actual songs. In "Love," a female voice intones, "There are only two emotions that human beings experience: fear and love," over a squiggly sound collage. Later, an instrumental number places tinkling harp arpeggios against drifting keyboard textures. That song's title? "Incense."
Part Two is most powerful when Badu goes for straight feeling: In "Out My Mind Just in Time (Part 1) (Undercover Over-Lover)," she stops in the cabaret, singing a torch song with some real feeling behind it. It's what New Amerykah Part Two needs: more angst, fewer ankhs.
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