The music video for Erykah Badu’s latest single ‘Window Seat’ has kicked up a little controversy in the States over the past week. Perhaps I’m not looking at it from an American perspective but I can’t really see why.
The cause for concern is that in the video she is followed on camera as she retraces the route taken by John F. Kennedy’s convoy around Dealy Plaza, Dallas, leading up to where he was shot, whilst simultaneously removing all her clothes. The meaning of this is not entirely clear and perhaps it is not meant to be but the connection with the assassination is made obvious: the video begins with the radio commentary of Kennedy’s last moments and ends with Badu herself seeming to be shot in the exact same spot as the late president.
Predictably, some have reacted sensitively to this potent yet perplexing visual statement but I would argue that, appreciating it for what it is, a music video, this signifies a step backwards in Badu’s work, and is far less controversial for it.
Her last album, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), simply astonished. A singer previously known for her beautiful yet hardly gound-breaking ‘neo-soul’ introspections on life and love released a record that was hypnotic, funky and harrowing, all at once. Pairing experimental production from the likes of Madilb and Sa-Ra Creative Partner’s with her explosive poetry on the state of the nation, with particular withering attention to the Bush administration, it was an album of the decade.
‘Window Seat’, the lead single from her latest album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), despite showing Badu’s ability in making great soul music, lacks the power of the songs from her preceding album. It actually sounds like it could have come straight from her first album Baduizm, recorded in 1997. Perhaps since Obama came to power the anger that fuelled Part One has eased off a little, the implicit yet unclear political message in the video compensating for its absence in the song. Although a glorious track it doesn’t convince after hearing the command of her last album.
A full review of her new album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) will be posted soon.
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