Where Meshell Ndegeocello threw herself fully into hip-hop and African American poetry with Cookie: The Anthropological Mixtape (2002), she drastically changes course for the successor Comfort Woman and enters the weightless spheres of the space where the gravity does not interfere with humans. With many influences from the astral jazz of the seventies, she managed to make the most sensual and
… innovative soul CD of 2003. Comfort Woman is, with the exception of two reggae songs, a collection of beautiful soul ballads that nowhere fall into the very sweet trap that is so characteristic of the genre. Nowhere does it get too smooth due to the natural, original rawness that Meshell Ndegeocello subtly manages to preserve across the board. Who has given up the courage to hear an honest soul CD one day, should definitely listen to this. Prince must be jealous of her. (AD)more