Three years and a pandemic away from debut album “Athena” (not a real debut, considering there were some promising episodes before it) Britney Denise Parks feels the work of a certain anointing. “Natural Brown Prom Queen” is an album featuring the Cincinnati singer-songwriter and violinist (the “513” in the title of the last song refers to the city’s telephone area code), who has long since moved to Los Angeles, confirms he himself is one of the best artists in the new field afro-nu-soulCertainly not worth celebrating so much at this time in the presence of other great personalities.
“Natural Brown Prom Queen” is actually an album that doesn’t pale at all in the presence of Beyoncé or Lizzo’s recent works, and one that actually cements the Sudan Archives as the most reliable Erykah Badu novel ever, that too due to a certain tonal similarity (listen to “Ciara” and “Yellow Brick Road”, just to give a few examples).
Fifteen tracks and three intervals are a lot of iron in the fire, but the disc has very rare moments of downfall and at least hits a few potential catchphrases, which fall in line with the ultra-rhythmic “Selfish Soul” and “Freaklizer.” It is no coincidence that Britney has been featured at several of the most important European music festivals in recent months.
In this second work Sudan Archives proposes R&B of great elegance (“Loyal”, “Flu”, “Milk Me”), which knows how to color with multicolored pop (the two titles mentioned above) is, hug culture Club (“Chevs10”), allying with hip-hop (“OMG Brit”, “Copycat”), highlighting one’s Afrocentric roots (“NBPQ”), flirting with funky, and defining catchphrases jazz (Ale’Start in the early “Home Maker”, but even more so in “Homesick”). And not to forget her instrument of choice, Britney gets the requisite gusto on “TDLY,” too.
08/07/2023