Miscommunication leads to complication - my emancipation don't fit your equation

Continuing my trip up Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time...

...we enter the top 10 with an album that many people possibly wouldn't expect to see quite so high in the list (if at all).  But they'd be wrong.

#10 : The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill - Lauryn Hill (1998) 

“This is a very sexist industry,” Lauryn Hill told Essence magazine in 1998. “They’ll never throw the ‘genius’ title to a sister.” Though already a star as co-leader of the Fugees, with Wyclef Jean, she was hungry to express her own vision. “[I wanted to] write songs that lyrically move me and have the integrity of reggae and the knock of hip-hop and the instrumentation of classic soul,” the singer said of her debut album.

She took control of the recording process, writing, producing, arranging, and helming sessions that included collaborators like pianist John Legend, still in college when he got the call to go out to New Jersey, where Hill was recording, and the pathfinding R&B artist D’Angelo. They shaped a sound that went from the money-hating banger “Lost Ones” to subtle, glorious, heartbreaking monuments such as “Ex-Factor” (reportedly about Wyclef Jean) and the swinging sermon “Doo Wop (That Thing).” For “I Used to Love Him,” Hill duetted with her hip-hop-soul forebear Mary J. Blige. Each song was driven by a clarity of vision and personal honesty that felt revelatory; in “To Zion,” she detailed her struggles as an ambitious professional and a new mom. Miseducation’s musical legacy is just as deep; at a time when pop was becoming increasingly slick and digitized in the go-go Nineties, here was an album that showed the commercial appeal of a rawer sound; “I wanna hear that thickness of sound,” Hill said. “You can’t get that from a computer, because a computer’s too perfect. But that human element, that’s what makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I love that.”

I know and like this album, having bought it reasonably soon after it was released - which was somewhat surprising because it doesn't feel like the sort of thing I would generally have bought.  But I did, pretty much loved it immediately and I have listened to it a lot over the intervening years.  So we can expect the track-by-track breakdown to be slightly longer than some of the recent efforts, because I actually know what's going on in some places.

1. "Intro"
A fine intro because you have no idea where it's going and then it suddenly all makes sense...
2. "Lost Ones"
...and then the bassline kicks in.  Given how it's not particularly representative of the rest of the album, I find this a somewhat strange "opener" but it's a well put-together track - a reasonably repetitive main vocal enhanced but some fine vocal and instrumental noodling.  And it's just occurred to me that I've heard this track loads of times and I've absolutely no idea what it's all about. 
3. "Ex-Factor"
Some strong vocal control on this and some beautiful harmonies to match - "languid" is the word I'd use.  With a surprisingly fine guitar solo hidden away towards the end of it, which isn't something you're expecting.
4. "Zion"
And this is just a beautiful love song from a woman to her son - "How beautiful if nothing more, than to wait at Zion's door - I've never been in love like this before" - done in a gospel style over an unobvious but effective classical guitar track.  Essential listening if you've not heard it before.  
5. "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
There are a LOT of words in this song and she weaves them well - "You know I only say it 'cause I'm truly genuine - don't be a hard rock when you really are a gem"
6. "Superstar"
OK - but a bit meandering for my taste.
7. "Final Hour"
Reasonably standard hip-hop - but with added flute, because flute is obviously what hip-hop needs.  It works pretty well though.
8. "When It Hurts So Bad"
A strong sense of yearning and survival but it's not the finest song on the album for me.
9. "I Used To Love Him"
Some very strong vocal control combined with beautiful harmonies and a clear story make this one of the best tracks on the album for me. "I thought what I wanted was something I needed - Mama said No and I just shoulda heeded"
10. "Forgive Them Father"
A strong reggae/gospel/hip-hop combination - "every day people lie to God, what makes you think they won't lie to you?"
11. "Every Ghetto, Every City"
It won't surprise you to hear that I didn't have a very similar childhood to Lauryn, so the fact that a surprising number of this list of childhood memories chime with me is impressive.  A beautiful song telling us all to remember where we came from - "You know it's hard, don't forget what you've got, looking back"
12. "Nothing Even Matters"
This is often called a neo-soul album, but for me it doesn't generally fit into the mould of the bizarre vocal noodling that, for example, d'Angelo presented on his albums.  Except for this track - which just happens to feature him.  Hmmm.
13. "Everything Is Everything"
Ah, that's better - he's gone now.
14. "The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill"
Some beautiful piano work this time - and some weird record scratching going on.  Not in the hip-hop style of scratching - but like the record has scratches on it.  For some reason, I always think this is the end of the album and am then surprised to find 2 more tracks after it.
15. "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You"
A fine, if not exactly essential cover (of a Frankie Valli song, I now know)
16. "Tell Him"
This is a better track, but still not exactly essential.

Throughout, it's a case of her beautiful and well-controlled voice delivering intelligent lyrics over some interesting harmonies and reasonably simple, but effective backing tracks featuring an interesting choice of instruments.  It would also have been very easy for them to clean the sound up much more than they did, but for me the roughness generally adds to the effect.  There's also a reasonable amount of variety between the songs - although let's be honest and say that none of them stray too far from the central path.

We also have to mention the kids that pop up throughout the album as outros on various songs giving their thoughts on "L-O-V-E Love!" - they're presented really well in the form of a lesson (with a very cool teacher!) and are utterly charming throughout.  It's a schooling for plenty of her (generally male) contemporaries who attempt similar things on their albums often aiming for humour, "real" or sexy but tending to end up boorish, sexist or just plain odd.

Wikipedia tells us that whilst writing for this album, Lauryn also wrote songs for Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston - two names I guess it doesn't hurt to have on your CV.  She was also pregnant for most of this time which she credited with breaking the writer's block she'd previously experienced. It also tells me that the last two tracks were additional bonus tracks on the CD, so my musical sensitivities regarding the "proper" end of the album were correct.  It actually has surprisingly little else to say about the album other than how well it was received by the critics and the public - debuting at #1 in the US album charts.  And over time, it's sold a few copies - over 20 million globally. 

And it is, to date, her only studio album - I think it's safe to say she didn't develop the best reputation with regards to her attitude afterwards, she got sued around songwriting credits and she spent time in prison for tax evasion.  But, as a wise journalist questions in the final paragraph, it's interesting to revisit these difficulties in the context of the Me Too movement, not so much in justifying such behaviour (if it was actually true) but in considering how many of her male contemporaries got away with similar and far worse behaviour without the merest comment.

Her Wikipedia entry certainly gives the impression of someone who struggled to find their way after having found fame so young - hopefully she has found some happiness now (although with 6 kids, I imagine she doesn't have much peace).  One thing that Wikipedia certainly confirms is that she inspired pIenty of musicians who followed in her footsteps, including a paragraph that lists approximately 75 musicians who have claimed her as inspiration - including references for most, so it's an impressively researched paragraph.  The entry also reminds me she was in Sister Act 2 - I always have a chuckle when I'm reminded of this and remember how super young she looks in it.

"Customers also listened to" a number of talentless females - TLC, Aaliyah, Destiny's Child, En Vogue, Janet, Mariah Carey - they can barely hold a note between them (and, for the avoidance of doubt, I am not being entirely serious here).  But this album has got to be as good as anything any of them have produced - I really like it and am perfectly happy with its position on list, despite a lot of complaints on the internet that Rolling Stone had overplayed the racial/sexual balancing act by including a black woman in the top 10 (some people really need to sit down and take a long hard look at themselves).

#11 - The penultimate Beatles entry
#9 - His last chance to convert me