Though the album is so rich with sample-reliant songs that it sometimes resembles a glorified mixtape, a couple standouts were made from scratch.

Instead, we get Badu playing around, in the best possible way, with sample-rooted songs like 'Turn Me Away (Get Munny)' (a twist on Sylvia Striplin's 'You Can't Turn Me Away' and the 1995 hip-hop anthem that sampled it, Junior M.A.F.I.A.'s 'Get Money'), 'Gone Baby, Don't Be Long' (a slightly silly new-love song that reworks Paul McCartney's 'Arrow Through Me'), and 'Umm Hmm' (its optimism reflected in that of its backbone, Ndugu & the Chocolate Jam Company's Earth, Wind & Fire-like 'Take Some Time'). A pause, deep breath, and a 'Here we go' is not required prior to putting it on. The list of collaborators, featuring Georgia Anne Muldrow, Madlib, Shafiq Husayn, Dilla, James Poyser, Ahmir Thompson, and Karriem Riggins, is similar, yet the makeup is drastically different, designed for instant kicked-back enjoyment. Most of it was actually recorded at the same time as 4th World War.

Thematically, it's aligned with 4th World War's relatively lighter songs, 'Me' and 'Honey,' more personal than planetary, less challenging sonically and lyrically.

Return of the Ankh is a relief in that Badu does not attempt to trump herself with a set that is even more intense and powerful than its predecessor. It's just as well: 2008's stupefying 4th World War provided such a dense concentration of charged lyrics over ceaselessly vein-melting production work that Erykah Badu could have been forgiven for letting five years pass prior to unveiling something else to soak up. Return of the Ankh was supposed to be issued earlier than March 2010.

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