I started this week talking about Carly Simon, who put out a burst of great music early in her career and then a lot of mediocre music for the thirty years that followed. Today I’m looking at Lauryn Hill, who is another sort of mystery altogether.
After some interesting work with The Fugees (including a lovely cover of Roberta Flack’s ‘Killing Him Softly’), Hill dropped a bomb on the music world with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. A powerful and seductive blend of hip-hop, soul and R&B, it became an instant classic, topping the charts and winning a bunch of Grammys.
That was 10 years ago. And since then… nothing.
OK, she did put out a live MTV Unplugged album in 2002, but that’s it. Ten years and no studio album from an artist who looked like the next Stevie Wonder. How can that happen?
It’s situations like this that remind you that there are real, living and breathing human beings behind these shiny discs we pop into our CD players. I’m going to speculate wildly here and suggest that something in Hill’s psychological makeup has prevented her from continuing to record. Perhaps it’s fear of failure following such a resounding success. Perhaps she feels she exposed too much of herself on record and prefers privacy to acclaim.
Whatever it is, I hope it’s a positive thing for her. Because it sucks for the rest of us. I’d love to hear something new from Lauryn Hill. In the meantime, here’s a great track from perhaps the only album she’ll ever release.
Meet Me In Montauk 
“We are thrilled to be a part of the return of Ms. Lauryn Hill!,” exclaimed Liza Richardson, an avid surfer, DJ, and music supervisor for “Surf’s Up.” “Apparently, she related to Big Z’s story — reaching the top, checking out for a while, doing some soul searching and re-emerging with joy — and wrote and recorded a real celebratory summer jam session for ‘Surf’ Up.’ We’re glad to have Lauryn back where she belongs!” – I found this on Lauryn Hill’s own website, where the only hint of activity is this song she wrote for Surf’s Up a year ago.
Big H apparently checked out to do some soul searching and re-emerged with joy? Okay. How about a follow-up album then 🙂 I love the notion of her as a female Stevie Wonder. She seems as though she has the talent to deserve such a comparison, yet… she needs to give us a bit more to go on, doesn’t she? Thanks for putting her back on my radar.
Maybe she is just counting the money from the first album? But I too would like to hear more from her.
Okay, that Willie post was an accident. Please change to Dana. I feel like I am blogging in a Charlie Kaufman world. I’m Willie, I’m Dana, I’m Willie, I’m Dana, I’m Diane Weist….
So you ARE Willie?!
Well, sometimes I’m Willie…
and sometimes i’m not.
I wish the real Willie would show up to defend himself. Dana is so confusing 🙂