RS500 #467: Maxwell — BLACKsummers’night

Year Released: 2009

Have I Heard This Before: I became aware of Maxwell through the hype surrounding both this album and its sequel, 2016’s blackSUMMERS’night. I liked this at the time, but the context surrounding its release and Maxwell’s place in the wider world of R&B was lost to my indie-loving ass at the time.

High Points: If anyone remembers what R&B was like in 2009 (and I have a better sense of that now than I did back then), I would imagine that BLACKsummers’night would have been such a breath of fresh air. The album is sexy as hell, just what one would want from a Maxwell album, but it keeps that mood up in such an organic way. It’s a throwback album that doesn’t make a point of being a throwback album, which is refreshing. These songs are honest expressions of lust, longing, and heartache that just happened to require a full band and horn section. What’s more, BLACKsummers’night is far from a monochromatic affair stylistically. While Maxwell sticks with the live band for the runtime of the album, he alternates well between soulful desperation (“Bad Habits”), sensual crooning (“Fistful of Tears”), and tender balladry (“Pretty Wings,” which is just a damn masterpiece). In so many respects, BLACKsummers’night is the sound of an artist working at the peak of his powers.

Low Points: I love that BLACKsummers’night is a traditional-sounding R&B album that came out at the peak of the Will.I.Am-ification of the pop charts, and I also love that Maxwell didn’t make a huge fuss about it being such a traditionalist project. That said, it is a fairly traditional R&B record, and especially when compared to what his contemporaries have been able to do with the art form, Maxwell seems a little more out of step with the times than he would probably want to have been. As a comparison, when Maxwell’s fellow neo-soul singer D’angelo returned after his long absence from the spotlight, he did so with an album that became part of the zeitgeist and stood up alongside the work that made him an icon in the first place. Maxwell doesn’t quite do that here.

Loose Thoughts: It took eight years after Maxwell first stepped away from the spotlight for him to release BLACKsummers’night, and then another seven for him to return again with blackSUMMERS’night. At this rate, we should expect blacksummers’NIGHT at some point in 2023 or 2024, but who knows.

Rating: While it may not be genre-defining or world-shattering, BLACKsummers’night is a Great album that has gotten better with age, even as a new group of R&B singers have taken what he did here and explored these ideas further.