Lauryn Hill
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Ruffhouse 69035)

My curiosity was peaked by Lauryn Hill's assault on the Grammys with this album, so I borrowed his disc from a coworker and set in to listen to find out what the hubbub was all about. Normally this kind of album escapes my attention like anything else overly popular with the masses, such as John Grisham and appropriate-age sex.

The disc begins with an intro, sounding like it was recorded in an inner-city high school. A teacher is leading a discussion, and he quizzes the students on the subject of just what love means. The discussion soon fades into track one, but it recurs between most of the tracks on the disc, as each student provides their own unique input on the subject.

Miseducation is a diverse collection of sounds, at points sounding reggae, jazz, doo-wop, soul, and R&B. Each song show several of these influences simultaneously, rather than just one style in particular. From time to time Lauryn will drop into rasta mode, and other times she croons with real diva power and soul.

When she goes straight hip-hop, she shows that she is as polished a rapper as anyone. The songwriting is consistently strong, in some places poetic, other places literal, but nearly always powerful. The use of harmonies is everywhere and used to great effect. At times, it seems like a choir of a hundred Lauryns perfectly in tune is serenading you.

My favorite tracks are "Lost Ones," a reggae-style rap, "To Zion," a deeply emotional ballad dedicated to her young son, the single "Doo-Wop (That Thing)," "Every Ghetto, Every City," a look back on her childhood, "Everything Is Everything," a stellar hip-hop tune, and the two hidden tracks at the end.

The first hidden track is a great and thoroughly unexpected cover of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You," and another song that begins with a drumbeat a lot like the one that begins Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees" and continues along, rolling on a mellow groove.

Which isn't to say that the other tracks aren't good. There aren't any songs that just outright fail, but some are just a bit too mellow and soulful for me, but to those with a love for good R&B, almost any track might be a personal favorite. "Nothing Even Matters" for example, is an outright (not to mention a bit silly and sappy) love song, a duet between Lauryn and D'Angelo.

Each cites to the other, in their best crooner style, examples of things that just don't matter anymore because of how much in love they are. This one was just crying out for Luther Vandross and Anita Baker, and/or Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken.

It's all very good, and Lauryn is obviously an incredible talent (she produced, wrote, arranged, and performed virtually everything) but some of it, I just can't get into. Probably wouldn't buy the disc myself unless I found it for like $3.99 (which is probably easy enough nowadays).

The songs that appeal to me most are generally the straightforward hip-hop ones, with a couple of the ballads standing out as well. This CD is not as incredible as the critical hype might make it out to be, but it's still better than those scrumptious … er, I mean those goddamned Backstreet Boys.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by HIP