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3121
by Prince
Prince is Back, and He's Damn Happy 3121 flows from beginning to end with only a few hiccups, and the ride is over in 53 minutes. Prince's triple-disc kitchen sink efforts are a thing of the past - the new Prince is calculatedly commercial and finally capable of self-editing. |
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A Change Is Gonna Come
by James, Leela
Backward-looking forward thinking Leela James has to follow and coexist with a decade of neo-soul stars, and while she sports a rich, husky voice you'd expect to hear coming from the mouth of a 300-pound sister at a black church, you'd be hard-pressed to point at anything new about much of the songwriting or production on this album. |
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Bravebird
by Amel Larrieux
All She's Got - and It's Plenty To hear Amel sing about any of the topics she tackles on this excursion—female circumcision, slavery, broken families, even a certain sort of finger-wagging feminism—pulling it off with the same kind of smoothness Sade does when delivering album-length discussions on love, it goes beyond being commendable; it's startlingly refreshing. |
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I Can't Stop
by Al Green
Portrait of a Soul Man in Eternal Summer. I Can't Stop's brilliance doesn't lie in his rehashing of any '70s love man poses but in Green's sterling and steadfast dedication to his craft. |
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The Diary of Alicia Keys
by Alicia Keys
Portrait of a Soul Queen in Spring With one album, Alicia Keys jumps up from the most overrated R&B; artist since Michael Jackson to the best young talent R&B; has seen in a very long time. |
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Atlantic R&B;: 1947-1952
by Various Artists
Roots Of A Revolution A great historical artifact and a solid collection. |
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A Little Deeper
by Ms. Dynamite
I Wanna Be Like Ms. Dynamite When I Grow Up No, there is no need for cultural tokenism here, because Ms. Dynamite stands mighty fine on her own. |
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Frustrated Artist Tour
by Erykah Badu
Erykah's Softer Side Turns Razor-Sharp Experiencing Badu's songs live is an experience that cannot be relived in a studio release and probably not as a live album, either. Her live interpretations bring an edge to her tracks when her albums usually lean to the softer side. |
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Justified
by Justin Timberlake
Justify my love I'm not even going to bore you with my endless diatribes of what songs are good, and how even though the lyrics suck almost as bad as Avril's (i.e. “you're outta this world except you're not green.” Yeah. That's real.). But it just doesn't matter. It just, like, totally rocks. For reals. But I will go on the record and tell you now that Justin Timberlake's solo debut is good. In fact, it's great. |
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Floetic
by Floetry
Floetry, and It's Not All Right Ah, Floetry. There is flow. There is poetry. There is beat. There is soul. But something doesn't blend like it should. It's like Jill Scott wants to be Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, and Eve aspires to be India.Arie. There are just a few problems with that picture. |
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