★★★★★
Release Date: July 7th 2009 I'm a guy who really likes R&B, and some of my favorite artists are R&B, such as Justin Timberlake, Usher, The Weeknd, and Frank Ocean to name a few. I've been getting much into modern R&B in the last few months, and when I saw a copy of Maxwell's BLACKsummers'night at Walmart a few weeks ago, I needed to check it out. It said that it was "album of the year" for a few publications on the album sticker, so I was very intrigued by it...
- absolutepunk.net
2013-04-08
★★★★★
Now was Maxwell's final album before an eight-year break from recording. It showed how in-step and yet completely out-of-kilter an artist he was. This is grown-up, frequently gorgeous music that epitomises the very best in neo-soul. Now finds Maxwell on track after the more conceptual (read: rambling) groove-based Embrya album, the follow-up to his groundbreaking debut, Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite. Here the emphasis is on the song...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-04-23
★★★★★
Even though he apparently considered the Bush years as much of a buzzkill as Erykah Badu and D'Angelo, Maxwell has always been the canny pop face of neo-soul, doubtlessly spending his exile thinking about deep shit and crafting interesting chord progressions rather than getting paranoid, getting drunk and playing video games, or doing whatever the fuck Lauryn Hill does...
- www.cokemachineglow.com
2010-12-20
★★★★★
It has been eight years since we've heard a new Maxwell album, and the anticipation is high...too high. Such heights invite disappointment; it's almost built-in after a year of consistent PR buzz, but folks won't know that until 7/7/09 when they bring eight years of hope as they press "play...
- www.soultracks.com
2010-12-07
★★★★★
Endowed with afluid falsetto and a masterful ear for songcraft, R&B; singerMaxwell details a single passionate encounter over the course ofhis sophisticated debut Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite. While he can't yet claim the throneoccupied by Marvin Gaye, he smooths hip-hop's and soul's edges,proving that black dance music doesn't automatically mean ghettoculture.
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
With its '70s R&B; moves and Afro-haircut-centric vibe, Maxwell's1996 debut, Urban Hang Suite, wore its old school on its sleeve.Embrya, his follow-up album, wants to take us to an even higherground. The first track, listed at 00, is in fact a printed poem(something about the birth of "the next trinity of beings,"complete with science-fiction overtones) that we're meant toread before we listen to the record...
- ew.com
2010-08-27
★★★★★
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- spin.com
2010-08-25
★★★★★
Which isn't a charge that can be levelled at Blacksummers' Night, apparently the first in a trilogy of albums, and markedly more direct than the arcane Embrya. So much so that the sentiments are, by and large, trite, from Stop the World's "When I'm here with you the world stops for me" to Pretty Wings' "Your face will be the reason that I smile"...
- www.guardian.co.uk
2010-04-02
★★★★★
The best way to listen to Maxwell's new "BLACKsummers' Night" is with the volume turned all the way up. The R&B artist didn't take a turn toward heavy metal during the eight years he's spent between releasing albums; this one, like his previous three, is full of meditative jams written on the continuum between ardor and heartache...
- latimesblogs.latimes.com
2010-02-19
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