Featured Release

Album Overview

On Synonym, Meshell Ndegeocello treats familiar songs less as fixed compositions than as material for a working ensemble. The fifteen-track program moves through folk, soul, country, pop, R&B, electro-boogie, alternative rock and hip-hop, but the changing source material is held together by a recurring circle of instrumentalists and Ndegeocello’s approach to arrangement and production. Drummers Abe Rounds and Deantoni Parks, guitarist Chris Bruce, keyboardists Jake Sherman, Jebin Bruni and Larry Goldings, saxophonists Josh Johnson and Levon Henry, flutist Elena Pinderhughes and others move through the record, while a different vocal partner reshapes the center of each song.

The duet format is fundamental to the album. Ndegeocello pairs with Cynthia Erivo, Cat Power, Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, Madison Cunningham, Lianne La Havas, Bill Callahan and others, recasting songs that arrive with well-established histories. The arrangements deliberately retain a relationship to those originals while changing groove, instrumentation, vocal perspective or musical setting. Ndegeocello has described that relationship through the album’s title: the new arrangements function as “synonyms” for the originals—different sounds carrying related meanings.

Synonym also reconnects Ndegeocello with David Gamson, producer of her early albums Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion. Gamson co-produced the album with Ndegeocello and Abe Rounds, joining an established contemporary circle of musicians with a production relationship reaching back to the beginning of her recording career.

From the album…

“Don’t You Want Me” makes the album’s method audible. The Human League’s synth-pop framework gives way to a dub-reggae pulse, with Ndegeocello on bass, Abe Rounds on drums and rhythm guitar, Chris Bruce on electric guitar and Josh Johnson supplying horns and the horn arrangement. Rather than reproducing the original record’s dramatic male-female exchange, Ndegeocello and Cat Power alternate lines, meet in the pre-chorus and join vocally, allowing the familiar lyric to take on a different conversational shape.

The result is a useful entrance into Synonym: the song remains recognizable while nearly every element surrounding it has been reconsidered. Groove replaces the original electronic drive, the horns are used sparingly, and the contrast between the two singers becomes part of the arrangement itself. It demonstrates how Ndegeocello approaches the album’s source material, by not disguising where the songs came from, but by changing the musical conditions around them.

Listen to the album

Recommended listening: start with “Don’t You Want Me” for the album’s groove-centered approach to rearrangement; then move to “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” with Cynthia Erivo, “Islands in the Stream” with Chaka Khan, and “With God on Our Side” with Bill Callahan and Chris Thile to hear how the same duet concept moves through very different source material.

Album Details

Artist: Meshell Ndegeocello
Album: Synonym
Label: Blue Note Records
Release Date: October 2, 2026

Personnel / featured collaborators

Meshell Ndegeocello — vocals, bass, multi-instrumentalist; producer
Abe Rounds — drums; producer
Deantoni Parks — drums
Chris Bruce — guitar
Jake Sherman — keyboards
Jebin Bruni — keyboards
Larry Goldings — keyboards
Josh Johnson — saxophone / horns
Levon Henry — saxophone
Elena Pinderhughes — flute
Béla Fleck — banjo

Featured vocal and musical collaborators across the album include Cynthia Erivo, Cat Power, Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, Bill Callahan, Chris Thile, Nick Hakim, Robert Glasper, Madison Cunningham, Laura Lee, Lizz Wright, Emily King, Lianne La Havas, Moses Sumney, Destin Conrad, ANOHNI, WILLOW, Evann McIntosh and Ink.

Featured track — “Don’t You Want Me”

Meshell Ndegeocello — vocals, bass
Cat Power — vocals
Abe Rounds — drums, rhythm guitar
Josh Johnson — horns; horn arrangement
Chris Bruce — electric guitar

Written by Jo Callis, Philip Oakey and Philip Adrian Wright.
Produced by David Gamson, Abe Rounds and Meshell Ndegeocello.
Arranged by Abe Rounds, David Gamson and Meshell Ndegeocello.

Production details

Synonym was co-produced by Meshell Ndegeocello, David Gamson and Abe Rounds. The album marks a renewed production collaboration between Ndegeocello and Gamson, who produced her first two albums, Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion.

Track Listing

1. I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) — with Cynthia Erivo
2. Don’t You Want Me — with Cat Power
3. Don’t Stop the Music — with Nick Hakim, Robert Glasper
4. Islands in the Stream — with Chaka Khan
5. It Ain’t Me Babe — with Madison Cunningham
6. Always on Time — with Laura Lee
7. Be Real Black for Me — with Emily King, Lizz Wright
8. Don’t Look Any Further — with Lianne La Havas
9. The Closer I Get to You — with Destin Conrad, Moses Sumney
10. Golden Ring — with Brandi Carlile
11. I Got You Babe — with ANOHNI
12. Here We Come (Here He Comes) — with Evann McIntosh
13. Guilty — with Ink
14. Hunger Strike — with WILLOW
15. With God on Our Side — with Bill Callahan, Chris Thile