Album Info Hide Show Artist: Me’Shell NdegOcello Album: Bitter Released: UK, Europe & US, 2022 Tracklist: A1 Adam 2:24 A2 Fool Of Me 3:30 A3 Faithful 4:46 A4 Satisfy 4:05 A5 Bitter 4:15 B1 May This Be Love 5:17 B2 Sincerity 5:30 B3 Loyalty 4:20 C1 Beautiful 2:44 C2 Eve 1:23 C3 Wasted Time 4:55 C4 Grace 4:27 C5 Wasted Time (Alternate) 3:39 D1 Fool Of Me (Instrumental) 3:44 D2 Bitter (Instrumental) 4:12 D3 Beautiful (Instrumental) 2:34 D4 Wasted Time (Instrumental) 4:56 D5 Grace (Instrumental) 4:27 Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. In stock vinyl is usally shipped next business day, please check the availability field at the top of the product page to see whether the record is currently in stock or if it is available from the supplier as well as estimated shipping times. If you order an in stock item together with a pre order or back order (listed as available from supplier rather than in stock) then the order will be shipped together when all items arrive. If you would like the in stock items shipped first please place two separate orders or contact us to arrange shipping items separately. We are strongly committed to customer satisfaction. If you experience any problems with your order contact us so we can rectify the situation. If the record arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive we will cover the cost of replacing or returning the record. If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show By the time Bitter arrived in August 1999, Me’Shell NdegOcello had already carved out a reputation for rubbery basslines and fearless lyric bite. Then she pivoted. Bitter is spare, slow-burning and intimate, a late-night confession rather than a manifesto. Issued on Maverick Records and produced by Craig Street, it leans into space and breath, the kind of record where you can almost hear the room. Street, who made his name with moody, acoustic-leaning sessions, keeps the palette close to the skin. Acoustic guitars glow, strings sigh, and NdegOcellos bass sits low and patient, more heartbeat than headline. The title track sets the tone. The arrangement is almost skeletal, which lets the phrasing do the emotional heavy lifting. She doesnt oversing; she underlines, lingering on syllables until they ache. Theres a hush to the performances that feels earned, like the quiet that follows an argument. Its not melancholy for show, either. The writing carries that bruised clarity you hear when someone has run out of defences and is finally speaking plainly. Fool of Me is the song most listeners know, thanks to its haunting placement in Love & Basketball the following year. On the album it lands even harder. Bare instrumentation, a melody that moves like a sigh, and a lyric that cuts right to the bone. You can feel why it became a fan favourite, the kind of track people use to measure the truth of their own heartbreak. Her cover of Please Dont Let Me Be Misunderstood is just as telling. Stripped of bravado, it plays like a quiet plea, nudging the standard away from bluesy swagger and toward private prayer. What makes Bitter endure is the discipline. NdegOcellos bass is famously versatile, yet here she chooses economy. Lines hover behind the vocal, supporting rather than showing off, and when she does step forward its about tone and feel, not flash. The guitar work is tasteful and close-miked, often carrying the harmonic load while the strings colour around the edges. You can picture the players in a semicircle, lights low, everyone listening harder than they play. That restraint turns small choices into big moments, like a breath taken before a verse, or the way a harmony lands on the last word of a line. As a pivot in her catalogue its crucial. Plantation Lullabies and Peace Beyond Passion gave us the swagger and the social heat; Bitter holds the mirror closer. It didnt chase radio, yet critics clocked what she was up to, praising the stark beauty and the honesty of the writing. She wasnt capitulating to the times, she was refining her own lane. You can trace a line from this record to the chamber-soul minimalism that became a touchstone for so many turn-of-the-century singer-songwriters. Spin it on a good system and the production reveals itself. The air around the vocal, the wood of the acoustic guitars, the subtle bow on the strings, they all bloom on a quiet night. Thats a strong argument for tracking down Bitter vinyl if you can, especially if youre the sort who still browses a Melbourne record store on weekends and trawls the web on weeknights. Me’Shell NdegOcello albums on vinyl reward that investment in headspace; the grooves suit her sense of space and time. If youre looking to buy Me’Shell NdegOcello records online in Australia, keep an eye on reputable shops that specialise in vinyl records Australia wide, because clean copies of Me’Shell NdegOcello vinyl tend to disappear fast. Two decades on, Bitter still sounds like a brave choice and a generous one. It invites you in, asks you to sit with the quieter parts of love, and refuses to hurry the conversation. The songs dont resolve every tension, but they leave you with something better, a calm that arrives after youve stopped trying to win. If youre building a late-night stack or curating a corner of the shelf for albums that breathe, this belongs there. Put it on, turn the lights down, and let the silence around her voice do the work. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review