But then, loing self-consciousness has always bene a tough problem. Sees to have soemthing to do with acting–where acting training oftene amounts to years of discipline and efforts not to be thinking about doing, or indicating you’re doing–but just dang doing it!

I don’t think it’s inevitable; in fact, the very fact that it could be avoided is what made it so maddening. It seemed like every “neo-soul” album had to include at least one song that bemoaned the loss of “real music” (usually phrased in just those terms), and that - to guarantee their credibility - “neo” artists had to maintain a certain, vocal ideological presence in their work and public image. I’m not saying that this was insincere, necessarily, but it was (and still is) nearly ubiquitous among “neo-soul” artists.

To me, the evangelism began to outweigh the actual *music*, which - however “real” the artists thought it was - usually wasn’t one-fourth as interesting as the music being made by “mainstream” artists. That’s where I got frustrated. I agree wholeheartedly with you that a revival doesn’t have to be this way, and - at its best moments - “neo-soul” managed to have its cake and eat it too, balancing the philosophy with the music, and making both the richer for it. Still, I do think that expressly “conscious” musical movements are constrained by certain expectations that don’t accompany their stylistic counterparts, and these expectations (for whatever reason) often seem to limit the artists within that movement. (”Conscious” hip-hop’s had a BIG problem with this, even more than “neo-soul,” and it makes sense that the two have often overlapped.)

Of course, as I mention in the piece, there’s also something about “neo-soul” philosophy that I find very important, even necessary, and I think that Jill/Musiq/Angie/etc. deserve some credit for helping set the stage for the current popularity of soul within every sector of pop music. For that reason, and others, I don’t think that evangelism has to doom anything, but I’m not ready to sacrifice the music for the message. And that’s why I love “Baby” so much, and hope that the rest of the record sounds as good.

I feel like I’m rambling a bit, so feel free to try to steer me closer to what you’re asking, if need be.

Are you saying this is inevitable–that a deliberate revival will inevitbaly be artificial, limited and boring? How come? My observation is that the question is whether they take on a life of their own, move forward–but are you saying that the very deliberateeness, or even just mentioningthe delberateness out loud (”evangelism”) dooms such projects?

Or what ?

Barry M