We Want You
Unlikely duet previews Synonym, an ambitious covers album featuring Cynthia Erivo, Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, and WILLOW
Meshell Ndegeocello is taking one of the Eighties’ frostiest break-up pop anthems somewhere much warmer. The bassist, singer, and producer has shared a new version of Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” with Cat Power, reimagining the synth-pop classic as a laid-back reggae song that swaps intense, icy keyboards for horns and an easy, swaying groove. The track is the latest preview of Synonym, Ndegeocello’s upcoming album of collaborative covers due Oct. 2.
On the original 1981 hit, the sharp-edged synthesizers and dramatic lovers’ quarrel are what make the song so captivating. Ndegeocello opts for laid-back reggae accented by warm horns, so the track feels like two people reflecting on the same relationship from opposite sides rather than an argument.
The track is the second glimpse of Synonym, Ndegeocello’s third album for Blue Note Records. The project is built around songs that have maintained relevance in the cultural mainstream for decades, pairing each with a different collaborator. The result stretches comfortably across generations and genres, drawing from Sixties folk, Seventies soul, country, and pop, Eighties R&B and electro-boogie, Nineties alternative rock, and early-2000s hip-hop.
