- A stunning accomplishment of ambitious and sometimes leftfield R&B and hip-hop, jumping between moods, genres and textures with a stream-of-consciousness flow.
- "Sudan means 'land of the Blacks,' and 'archives' means history. So in a way, my name just means 'Black histories,'" Brittney Parks told NPR last month. Be it via inspiration from Sudanese fiddlers, empowering odes to Black hair or her eclectic fusions of hip-hop, R&B and traditional African orchestral music, Sudan Archives has been living up to that idea since she picked up a violin in the fourth grade. 2019's Athena was an epic display of artistic strength, and strength of character in general. ("I'm too unique to kneel," she sang in one song.) The same holds true on her sophomore album Natural Brown Prom Queen. On this batch of experimental bangers, the Cincinnati-born one-woman-band wears her heart on her sleeve, darting from one maximalist idea to the next and leaving no facet of herself unexplored.
Throughout the album Sudan moves seamlessly from off-the-wall playfulness to sensuality to dark, intrusive thoughts. It never comes off as unfocused, instead an honest reflection of what she feels in each given moment. It's the most comprehensive look we've gotten into her internal world so far and a much more down to earth affair than Athena, which allows her to cover even more ground. In the same song she'll touch upon sexual desire, missing her mother, cousins in Chicago who'll slap you in your face and the weridness of LA, over dynamic beats that change shape just as frequently as the lyricis do.
The autobiographical title track charts her Ohio origin story as an anime-watching, church going member of a pop-group run by her stepdad. "Selfish Soul" touches upon colourism in the industry and its historical rejection of natural African hair. "Home Maker" goes from seductive mating dance to her confessing that she cries when she's alone. "You'll have to check your phone later, way later," she urges on "Home Maker", commanding attention both seductively and instrumentally. (I counted six instrumental switch-ups on this track alone.) With every line she paints an all-encompassing portrait of herself, and there's added realism in how suddenly she shifts between vulnerability and impenetrable confidence.
The violin that was so prevalent on Athena takes a back seat this time around. What emerges instead is an eclectic mix of booming hip-hop, carnal noise rap, woozy synth and early-'00s inspired R&B. Both her and the production sound chart ready and more accessible than ever. The hooks are stickier, the mixes are bigger thanks to some tactful outsourcing and as a result she sounds closer than ever to bonafide popstar territory/the archetypal modern popstar. "Home Maker" is a musical flex, snippets of jazzy trumpet playing and dreamy harps come and go until things settle into a crispy drumline which then marches into a soaring violin climax at the end.
It feels hard to contextualise an album this full, but in an interview with NPR Sudan summarised it as an ode to home (Cincinnati), so much so that it was initially meant to be titled Homesick. Themes of home are ever-present, like on "Yellow Brick Road," a homecoming anthem where her hypnotic flows are accompanied by spontaneous spurts of brass, birdsong and clipped synths that underline the joy of returning home. Natural brown Prom Queen is a study of the person that she transformed into while she was gone. "I just wanted to talk about how I've got a really good balance going on of mixing the roots together and becoming this person I am now," she mentioned in that same interview. On Natural Brown Prom Queen, she proves she belongs to no mood, genre or period of time. Over a placeless mix of sounds and endlessly dynamic beats she comes of age, shaping Black histories into exciting futures, all while making it clear that her idea of home is wherever she decides it is at any given moment.
Tracklist01. Home Maker
02. NBPQ (Topless)
03. Is This Real? (Can You Hear Yourself?)
04. Ciara
05. Selfish Soul
06. Loyal (EDD)
07. OMG BRITT
08. ChevyS10
09. Copycat (Broken Notions)
10. It's Already Done
11. FLUE
12. TDLY (Homegrown Land)
13. Do Your Thing (Refreshing Springs)
14. Freakalizer
15. Homesick (Gorgeous & Arrogant)
16. Milk Me
17. Yellow Brick Road
18. #513