Xavier Naidoo - Alles Kann Besser Werden (2009)

Xavier Naidoo has been called the premier German R&B singer of his generation. In the wake of Alles Kann Besser Werden, his astounding three-CD, 35-track tour de force, some might go so far as to call him the premier German popular music artist of his generation. He demonstrates such versatility across the two-and-half-hour scope of this triple album, to call him an R&B singer would be a slight. He is a maestro. He draws from R&B, hip-hop, pop/rock, electronica, and even classical at one point or another on Alles Kann Besser Werden, and seamlessly fuses it all together into a style all his own. His only rival is Jan Delay, with whom he recently collaborated. Then again, longtime fans shouldn't be too surprised with Alles Kann Besser Werden, which in essence is the culmination of Naidoo's career to date. He first shook up the German-language music world a decade earlier with Nicht von Dieser Welt (1998), a modern-day R&B classic whose title, which translates to "Not of This World" in English, was telling. Even back then, Naidoo was on a level separate from his contemporaries, and his ambitions were grand, leading to the big-band side project Söhne Mannheims, the follow-up double album Zwischenspiel/Alles für den Herrn (2002), and numerous live recordings, most notably the recent double-CD MTV Unplugged album Wettsingen in Schwetzingen (2008). The lead single of Alles Kann Besser Werden, the album-opening title track, is the perfect summary of what proceeds thereafter. An uplifting song with a message of hope and positivity, "Alles Kann Besser Werden" has it all: soulful vocals, a gospel chorus, an anthemic hip-hop beat, a soaring string arrangement, a collaboration (with Janet Grogan, who sings in English), and a segue into the next song, "Mut zur Veränderung," which opens momentarily with classical piano and breaks wide open with a skittering drum'n'bass rhythm track. Alles Kann Besser Werden is laden with highlights such as this, and perhaps most impressive of all, the songs generally segue into one another, giving each of the three discs the feeling of a suite. Contrarily, not everyone will have the patience or will to make their way through an album of this magnitude. For many, there's simply too much music here, too much ambition. All the same, in an age of single-track MP3 downloads, there's no question that Alles Kann Besser Werden is an exceptional achievement.