Meshell Ndegeocello's third album, Synonym, for Blue Note, arrives Friday (Oct 2) with 15 songs that first became famous as duets, from Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" to Ja Rule and Ashanti's "Always on Time." The guest list runs from Chaka Khan to WILLOW, and the label's announcement sets one rule for every track: "the songs are delivered as duets by people who identify as the same gender."

Most of these songs were written or recorded as a conversation between a man and a woman. The album opens with Cynthia Erivo on "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," the Aretha Franklin and George Michael duet that topped the Hot 100 in 1987 and served as the lead single. Ndegeocello explained the approach in the release, saying, "I'm not defining anything, because the absence of definition is where I feel most free."

Two of the 15 come out of the Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway songbook, which HitsCulture revisited when Flack died in February 2025 at 88. "The Closer I Get to You" goes to Destin Conrad and Moses Sumney. "Be Real Black for Me" goes to Emily King and Lizz Wright, who also has a new voice, piano and organ record with Kenny Banks Sr.

Chaka Khan takes "Islands in the Stream," the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton country-pop hit from 1983. Her history with Ndegeocello goes back three decades, to Khan's 1996 single "Never Miss the Water," which was credited to Khan featuring Ndegeocello. On "Always on Time," the album's early-aughts hip-hop entry, Khruangbin bassist Laura Lee trades lines with one of the most recognizable bass players in R&B.

Robert Glasper, the Grammy winner whose Black Radio came out on Blue Note in 2012, joins Nick Hakim on "Don't Stop the Music." Lianne La Havas handles "Don't Look Any Further," the 1984 Motown hit by Dennis Edwards and Siedah Garrett. Blue Note released that version as a single on Aug 28, with Elena Pinderhughes on flute. Cat Power, whose catalog already includes several albums of other people's songs, sings the Human League's "Don't You Want Me."

Brandi Carlile covers "Golden Ring," the 1976 George Jones and Tammy Wynette duet, and ANOHNI sings "I Got You Babe." WILLOW takes "Hunger Strike," the 1991 Temple of the Dog song that Chris Cornell sang with Eddie Vedder. Madison Cunningham gets Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe," Ink takes the Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb duet "Guilty," and Evann McIntosh appears on "Here We Come (Here He Comes)."

The album closes with another Dylan song, "With God On Our Side," which arrived as a single on Sept 18 and pairs Bill Callahan with Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek mandolinist Chris Thile. Ndegeocello said "the lyrics just have a lot more aggression in it than its arrangement," and that she was "challenged to take this folk song and make it feel like I hear it."

David Gamson, who produced her first two albums, Plantation Lullabies in 1993 and Peace Beyond Passion in 1996, co-produced Synonym with Ndegeocello and drummer Abe Rounds. The band includes drummer Deantoni Parks, guitarist Chris Bruce and keyboardists Jake Sherman, Jebin Bruni and Larry Goldings. Saxophonists Josh Johnson and Levon Henry also play on the record, along with Béla Fleck on banjo.

Ndegeocello tied the record to her own life when she described it in the release. "This project is an expression of queer liberation as a synonym for liberation of all kinds," she said. "The queer community claimed me when others didn't and for a long time that felt too far away from other communities to which I belong but now I recognize the ways in which it all overlaps."

Synonym follows two Blue Note albums, The Omnichord Real Book in 2023 and No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin in 2024, which earned the first two Grammy Awards given to her own albums. This time she wanted the producer's chair as much as the bass. "I want to do more collective music," she said. "On this album, I wanted to show off as a producer. I love being on Blue Note Records, because with that, I still get to be a musician." The album is out Friday on color vinyl, black vinyl, CD and digital.

The tracklisting for Synonym is as follows:

  1. I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) with Cynthia Erivo
  2. Don’t You Want Me with Cat Power
  3. Don’t Stop The Music with Nick Hakim, Robert Glasper
  4. Islands In The Stream with Chaka Khan
  5. It Ain’t Me Babe with Madison Cunningham
  6. Always on Time with Laura Lee
  7. Be Real Black For Me with Emily King, Lizz Wright
  8. Don’t Look Any Further with Lianne La Havas
  9. The Closer I Get To You with Destin Conrad, Moses Sumney
  10. Golden Ring with Brandi Carlile
  11. I Got You Babe with ANOHNI
  12. Here We Come (Here He Comes) with Evann McIntosh
  13. Guilty with Ink
  14. Hunger Strike with WILLOW
  15. With God On Our Side with Bill Callahan, Chris Thile