Meshell Ndegeocello Synonym Review: All-Star Cover Album 2026

Meshell Ndegeocello's new album Synonym is a vivid all-star reinvention of songs by everyone from Bob Dylan to Jennifer Lopez. The cover album, rendered as duets, showcases her eclectic style and restless creativity.

A Career of Restlessness

It's fair to say that Meshell Ndegeocello has made a career out of declining to stay in one place too long. Since helping spark the neo soul genre with her 1993 debut album, Plantation Lullabies, she has variously worked in the fields of jazz, R&B, alternative rock, reggae, fusion and gospel. Her last album, No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, seemed intent on defying any kind of classification, leaping from Afrobeat funk to electronic abstraction to a closing track that sounded not unlike the xx. It won a Grammy for best alternative jazz album, which slightly smacked of the awards' organisers throwing up their hands in defeat after a lengthy and fruitless attempt to decide in which category it might belong.

Synonym: A Duets Cover Album

Even if you knew absolutely nothing about Ndegeocello's eclectic musical history, you could get a sense of her restlessness just from looking at the back cover of Synonym, a collection of cover versions rendered as duets. The source material picks from the oeuvres of Bob Dylan, Jennifer Lopez, the Human League, Barbra Streisand and Chris Cornell's short-lived grunge supergroup Temple of the Dog, among others. Her collaborators range from Bill Callahan and Cat Power to Chaka Khan and Cynthia Erivo, by way of jazz pianist Robert Glasper.

Track Highlights and Collaborations

There is a certain unifying thread in Ndegeocello's desire to make Synonym "an expression of queer liberation as a synonym for love." This thematic core runs through the album, with each duet offering a unique interpretation. Standout tracks include her take on Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" with Bill Callahan, and a surprising reinvention of Jennifer Lopez's "Waiting for Tonight" with Chaka Khan.

Key Takeaways

• Synonym is a cover album of duets spanning genres and eras.
• Meshell Ndegeocello continues to defy categorization with her eclectic musical choices.
• The album explores themes of queer liberation and love.
• Collaborators include Bill Callahan, Cat Power, Chaka Khan, and Cynthia Erivo.
• It follows her Grammy-winning album No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin.

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