New Amerykah

Eccentric R&B songstress Erykah Badu attempts to solve all the world's problems, including global warming, the international recession and what to do about Mugabe in her fourth album, wittily dubbed 'New Amerykah (4th World War)'.

Well, sort of.

The disc is the first in an ambitious three-album project that has the turbaned one preaching from the social conscience pulpit in her inimitable smooth-as-scotch style. This is fresh, this is original, this is so eclectic as to defy the norm, an irascible genius of an album. Mariah Carey fans, beware. Badu praises Louis Farrakhan and confronts US duplicity over staccato, imaginative beats from underground producer Madlib and Shafeeq Husain.

Curiously, it is the anomaly on '4th World War' that is the first single and bonus track, 'Honey'. A conventional ditty it sees Badu belt out ''Honey, you so sweet/Sugar got a long way to catch you'', a watered-down wash-out. On the other ten tracks, R&B's answer to Radiohead explores both evocative and excruciating lyricism that flies well beneath the radar.

"What if there wasn’t any niggas, only master teachers?" the four-time Grammy winner asks in the inexplicably compelling 'Master Teacher'. Perhaps the most accessible of the tracks is the vibrant 'My People' with its hypnotic jungle rhythms drawing the listener into a vortex.

To pick a standout track from this album is a difficult task. The songs are inseparable, as they mesh into an organic aural experience but 'The Healer', which sees Badu at her Billie Holiday best claiming that hip-hop 'is bigger than religion' over an ominous Madlib backing, is particularly resonant.

This is enchanting listening, everything Lauryn Hill's ill-fated last offering should have been. A tour de force from beginning to end that grows in stature with every play.