There is even a nod to a shape-shifting character from Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time” series on “Mobius,” where she sings of the “ ancient psychic tandem war elephant,” whose power is a healing telepathy. Needle Paw is a reliquary for Saalfield’s travels and influences, from Bulgarian choral music and the songs of Saharan nomads to rock and 1990s R&B. There are no concessions to trend or enormous features. Her byzantine harmonies are less important to the final mix than the primal timbre of the voice, whether isolated or in concert with others. The album breaks down the complex mechanisms driving the average Hiatus record in a catabolic process that isolates the ingredient most essential to Nai Palm: the human voice. The raw, stripped-down performances are antithetical to Hiatus Kaiyote’s lush, swollen sound.
Instead, her performance as vocalist, producer, arranger, and musical director confirms her talents-and, in her interpretive care, reaffirms listening as an act of love. They are songs that would surely haunt her if she got it wrong. Some are fodder for nostalgia, others the stuff of legend. She is alone at the wheel in the unenviable but courageous position of bearing sole responsibility for an album featuring songs that people have heard before. With Needle Paw, Saalfield turns inward to pull from herself what Hiatus Kaiyote’s massive arrangements could not. But it’s a risk she can afford to take after being cosigned by Erykah Badu, accompanied by Q-Tip, and sampled by Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Anderson. Pulling together a smattering of originals, a number of acoustic arrangements of songs from Hiatus Kaiyote’s repertoire, and a few daring covers, it is an unusual proposition for a solo debut-a calculated risk for a two-time Grammy-nominated artist presumably nowhere the end of her career, nor severing ties with her bandmates.
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