One of the key musical adventurer-eclectics of the last three decades, Meshell Ndegeocello remains pleasingly difficult to second guess. The explosive funk of her 1993 debut Plantation Lullabies may seem like a distant echo but it is now increasingly clear that it only represented one of many aspects of an artistic character that has not stopped growing amid distinct changes of context.

What is perhaps as important as the eclecticism is the blending of production and performance. As this new work, a Blue Note debut no less, shows, the bass player-composer-singer-commentator is now at a place in her development where she can make a studio sound that has a kind of sculpted, digitally mapped quality cohere with the irreplaceable flesh and blood of bluesy guitar picking or fatback drums. Moreover she excels in taking the relaxed yet fraught ambiance of low or mid-tempo tunes and weaving in successive layers of energy, to reach a peak by stealth. Yet ‘Vuma’, a scintillating foray into Afro-funk, serves as a notable reminder of the artist's affinity to dance music. Last but not least, Ndegeocello chooses her words with great care throughout the album, often expressing humility amid emotional enquiry, asking us to ponder ego and excess and think about what it may mean to ‘watch and wait in humble love.’