Meshell Ndegeocello has announced her newest record and it will be an album of covers titled Synonym. The first single was released with the announcement and it features Ndegeocello collaborating with Cynthia Erivo on a Aretha Franklin/George Michael song. The two teamed up to cover the 1986 hit, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me.)”
“This project is about classic songs that are known and loved,” Ndegeocello said in a press release announcing the album. “The songs have diverse tones, representing various genres and intentional grooves. But the album is also about joy, selfhood, individual representation, and universal experience.”
Other artists collaborating with Ndegeocello include Cat Power, Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, Chris Thile and ANOHNI.
And for Ndegeocello, this was a record that required a lot of thought and reflection. “This project is an expression of queer liberation as a synonym for liberation of all kinds,” she said. “The queer community claimed me when others didn’t and for a long time that felt too far away from other communities to which I belong but now I recognize the ways in which it all overlaps. Once again, I went back to my elders: Audre Lorde told us that there is no single issue struggle. Similarly, these arrangements are synonyms for their originals – these different sounds still mean the same thing.”
Synonym comes out October 2nd.
