Something Like a War

Avowing their DJ-minded methodology, starts the third LP with an excerpt from 's homiletic "Transition": "There will be people who will say, 'You don't mix this with that,' and you will say, 'Watch me.'" uses the guidance of 's to indicate that they are back on their grind, fortified by the intermediary work on recordings by and affiliates . The words indeed seem to have guided most aspects of . Assembled from tricontinental sessions in over 20 private and commercial studios, its polyglot art-pop integrates slick funk and Afro-beat, house and new jack swing, and dub and garage, inclusive of other flavors. Its cast is typically in makeup but -like in scale. There are nearly 20 voices, well-utilized string and horn sections, and enough instrumentalists to form a few bands with standard lineups. Producer and principal writer programs the drums, plays some of the instruments, arranges, and applies guileful samples. After a unifying, spirit-lifting house warm-up that almost sounds live enough to have been recorded at a small loft party, gets down to private business. Vulnerability, patience, action, and uninhibited expression are all upheld as imperatives for intimacy. , propelled by a springy bassline, instructs with sweetness to "Give it up, don't be afraid to fall," a sentiment reinforced with the heady next track through 's consoling baritone, accentuated in the background with and falsetto house legend . They lead the way and build up to powerhouse , who on the pulsing and swirling "Hard to Believe" is at her most urgent and commanding since "Don't Make Me Wait." When love falls apart -- the last five songs, all convalescent in some form, sift through the wreckage -- openness is advanced as no less necessary. The quality slips only on a ballad that approximates a late-'80s demo by or , lifting again with another showcase (the storming "Cry Everything") and an emotionally lacerated ballad pitched somewhere between 's "Joy and Pain" and ("No New Lies"). "Something Like a War" in no manner references the like-titled documentary about the sterilization of women in India, but rapper -- along with , one of only two vocalists to break from the album's tenderness -- swings at another form of oppression. She lands a direct hit just before , , and exchange verses on a trembling finale urging against self-concealment. ~ Andy Kellman