“Who Is Jill Scott? Words And Sounds Vol. 1” was released in 2000 and was Jill Scott’s debut album. It finds the Neo-Soul artist coming out with fresh material at a time when the R&B and Soul off-shoot was booming with popularity as the likes of Erykah Badu, D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill had become popular and helped to start up a style that would be taken on by the likes of John Legend, Musiq Soulchild and Dwele later.
1. “Jilltro” (Intro)
2. “Do You Remember”
Off a heavy introductory piece, you find that she moves right into another big recording as with the first proper tune on the album she comes to deliver a tune that has here bringing as many of her influences (named in the first track) as possible in order to make for a tune that. I can’t really see any real faults in what you get here as it carries through all of Erykah Badu’s work (that was of an especially high standard up to this point).
**Five Stars**
3. “Exclusivity” (Lude)
4. “Gettin’ In The Way”
Coming off a big interlude that has production from DJ Jazzy Jeff (of DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince), you see that she ensures that the heavy Hip Hop influence of the last one is able to persists through this one (one of the biggest singles that she dropped of the album). It is a smooth one and you see that although it isn’t as intense as many of the others, it does just as it is designed to for a
very satisfactory offering.
**Five Stars**
5. “A Long Walk”
You get a light swing from this one and I felt that this meant that it gave it some energy as you see that she chooses to go about things down the jazzy route as a bit of a switch to the conventional stuff (to be compared to what was seen on Erykah Badu’s first two albums). It is a fly cut and one that has her coming through with more material that defies conventions and makes the most of her talent.
**Five Stars**
6. “I Think It’s Better” (Lude)
7. “He Loves Me”
She brings a short one by laying out this one, a track that appears to share a few more similarlites to the trends of the contemporary R&B scene and so with the freaky percussion style that was predominant in this genre from around 1998 until 2001, you see that it gives her another direction to go in whilst she bases it all in her distinctively original style that you can’t really tire of no matter times you hear it.
**Five Stars**
8. “It’s Love”
You get more of the high-quality stuff as she gets down to this one and gets throws down a tune that has much more of a Hip Hop influence coming through as you see that she is backed up by some live drumming (done in Hip Hop style) and it seems to add massively to the piece to allow her to remain a part of her earthy style whilst still appearing to brace out a bit in order to come out with what I would consider to be amongst the best on the album.
**Five Stars**
9. “The Way”
This is a light one from her and one that is bound to bring you in from the start as you see that she sticks to all the same things that she had at every stage leading up to this point and with it makes for some feel-good material that, rather than doing things by lifting the tempo, has her showing just how well she can do it through the lyrics and her delivery of them with such a soothing vocal performance.
**Five Stars**
10. “Homey Molasses” (Lude)
11. “Love Rain”
This is another of the massively-big tunes on the album and one that I can’t see why anyone would have any problem getting into as you find that in it she gets the perfect production to take you into a laid-back mood and from this she comes through with some spoken word material and chooses to contrast this with some powerful melodies in the chorus to make it feel complete, and to show how well she can compose her ideas.
You get an interlude featuring an live performance see did along The Roots before this one kicks into effect and she comes out with a tune that had a bit of a punch to it in order to make it stand out from a lot of the others that are found here. I felt that she was able to effectively show how well she can explore more areas of a stlye that doesn’t really have any boundaries, but still has a certain feel like no other.
**Five Stars**
14. “One Is The Magic #”
You see that in this one she shows just how far things can be taken to make it break away from the rest of the pack. In this case she messes around with a little Spanish influence, and where others have failed in the past, I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy a single aspect of this as she nails it perfectly and makes sure that she makes it appeal to those who won’t really get themselves into anything with such a twist to it.
**Five Stars**
15. “Watching Me”
Sampling a little something from the Acid-Jazz pioneer Roy Ayers, you see that you get a straight killer tune here as with this one you see that she is backed up by some raw Hip Hop beats with some light synth grooves giving it melody before she gets back to the spoken word (which later develops into raps) to mix things up a little more and to show that she can’t contain her music and will go off in whatever direction it takes her.
**Five Stars**
16. “Brotha”
Sampling some classic Jazz in a simple piano loop (borrowed from Allen Toussaint) and I felt that it was a perfect way to set things up as she shows just how well her material seems to fit in with more traditional music (even though Neo-Soul is so progressive in its ways). It is another that shows her working at an optimal level, up to a standard that very few others would be able to come close to matching.
**Five Stars**
17. “Show Me”
Although I couldn’t say that it is really a weak one, when compared to what you get in the rest of te album it just doesn’t quite do as much as the rest (in my personal opinion) and so although you do get lots of the typical things that you tend to expect in her music, I felt that it was a bit too plain and could even be said to be filler, but when she is always working to such a high standard, it means it’s not really that far behind the rest as she ends the album.
**Four Stars**
You should just ignore the last track as really this is a killer album from Jill Scott and one that has her competing with the best in this genre. It is a fresh one and the way that it borrows from so many eras (whilst taking things forward) means that it is simply timeless and so you can’t really tire of what she does as it was so original and couldn’t really be copied.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
exceptional by (5%):
very helpful by (95%):
