Erykah Badu, The Alchemist – ‘Before The World Blows’ review: cosmic soul for a fractured world

Erykah Badu’s first studio album in 16 years arrives after a cryptic, stop-start rollout, carrying a title fit for the final broadcast before civilisation loses signal. Yet ‘Before the World Blows’, her long-awaited collaboration with venerated rap auteur The Alchemist, is less interested in predicting doomsday than asking what deserves protection when everything already feels volatile. READ MORE: On The Cover: Daine is stepping into self-aware popstardom: “It’s embarrassing in a delicious way” Her answer is wonderfully human: attention, humour, desire, ancestry and the freedom to change your mind. The Alchemist’s dusty production and smoke-stained samples give these ideas a suitably unstable home, but Badu is no decorative voice laid over his beats. She rearranges and programmes, adding Mellotron, kalimba and dense vocal stacks until singer and producer become indistinguishable. Their friction makes both artists sound stranger, warmer and freer. Badu bends language until wordplay becomes social critique. On the murky ‘I Just Play A Part’, the singer’s claim that she’s merely performing a role keeps changing meaning, moving between seductress, observer and threat while Westside Gun...