Jazmine Sullivan‘s ”Heaux Tales” Album Download MP3 ZIP Files
Jazmine Sullivan’s Heaux Tales EP was released on January 8, 2021, by RCA Records. It marked her comeback after the critically acclaimed Reality Show in 2015. The album features collaborations with Anderson .Paak, Ari Lennox, and H.E.R. The majority of the album was recorded in Sullivan’s Philadelphia home.
The album is a powerful celebration of women. Heaux Tales is an emotional journey that includes a spoken “tale” recorded by a personal friend before almost every song. These confessional spoken tales feature Black women revealing their experiences and lessons in love. These intimate conversations give the album a sense of community, casting Sullivan’s music as part of a wider conversation. The album empowers Sullivan to interpret their experiences and write about women’s true feelings in the ways women actually talk about them. Sullivan’s empathy and creativity grant her listeners permission to be equally generous.
Sullivan has a remarkable voice that can convey confidence and anguish equally well. The original Heaux Tales was unassuming, with eight songs and six spoken interludes. The album portrays lust, heartbreak, betrayal, and insecurity with such honesty and completeness that it feels instantly familiar.
The new deluxe edition, Heaux Tales, Mo’ Tales, released ahead of Sullivan’s Valentine’s Day tour, extends the story with five additional songs and corresponding tales. Although the original album stands alone, the new version allows Sullivan to showcase her new work. She has said that since her mother’s cancer diagnosis last spring, time has felt different, and she does not plan to take as long a break as she did before.
The new songs in Heaux Tales, Mo’ Tales carry the energy of the original closer, the H.E.R. duet “Girl Like Me.” They have a slightly softer sound and a more inward focus. They are not as sharp-elbowed as the original set, and they prioritize the characters’ sexual and emotional needs over financial ones. The album rarely touches on actual sex work, except for “Donna’s Tale,” whose narrator observes that even women in conventional marriages exchange sex for security.
The album recognizes women’s right to operate with equal impunity and the debt they are owed for dealing with poor treatment for so long. When Sullivan imagines life as a millionaire’s housewife on “The Other Side,” singing so longingly of her “dreams to buy expensive things,” it is apparent that she has paid the emotional price many times before.
