Ventriloquism can be considered from a number of perspectives: a homage to the slow jam, a tribute to the soundworld of the songwriting and production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, or a continuing desire to transcend narrow genre conventions. First and foremost, though, it's a personal mixtape that brilliantly reimagines 11 songs which Ndegeocello holds close to her heart, the earliest being George Clinton's much sampled ‘Atomic Dog’ (from the 1982 album Computer Games), the latest TLC's 1995 hit ‘Waterfalls’. From the stripped down, minimalist funk of ‘I Wonder If I Take You Home’ to the uber-sensuous reworking of the 1988 Al B. Sure! hit ‘Nite and Day’, such is the force of Ndegeocello's musical personality that she bends each song completely to her will, making each one seem utterly personal. The trio of Jam/Lewis hits includes Ralph Tresvant's ‘Sensitivity’, ‘Tender Love’, a mid-1980s hit for Force MDs heard here through a Neil Young filter, and, best of all, a lugubrious, reverbdrenched take on Janet Jackson's ‘Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun)’. If you were compiling a soundtrack to the end of time, this would make the perfect lead-off song. With other highlights including Prince's ‘Sometimes It Snows in April’ and an ingenious metrical reshaping of Sade's ‘Smooth Operator’, the power of Ndegeocello's art to transform and renew is something to be celebrated.