When bassist and singer-songwriter Esperanza Spalding played this music – from her most high-concept album yet – live in London last year, there was plenty of jubilant instrumental jamming alongside the new material. The album focuses on her vocals, with their wily melodic turns, personal poetry, spoken-word chatters and skewed R&B hooks. But even if they are pop songs, a few could have been composed by Wayne Shorter, and Spalding’s voice has never sounded so assured in its dizzying ascents from mid-range murmurs to falsetto swoops. Her singing variously suggests Kate Bush, Janelle Monae or even a female Jack Bruce with a 21st-century Cream. Unconditional Love is an unconditionally terrific pop ballad (intensified by her thunderous bass guitar), while the weaving Earth to Heaven is a testament to how powerful that voice has become, and the unison bass and guitar ostinato of Funk the Fear is almost as compelling on record as it was live – but for the fact that Matthew Stevens’ exciting guitar playing gets faded much too early.
