Shine

Estelle's vocals are a mix between three: Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey and Lauryn Hill: There seems to be a bit much over-dubbing going on in post production.

This collection of tunes isn't bad though. The writers are given kudos: The writing is great. The compositions are what need work. There are no real hooks here. I think if Rodney Jerkins had produced / written this LP for Estelle, this would have been major ear candy.

I heard American Boy on the radio the other day and just had to find out who was behind such a fun song. I checked her out on iTunes, but they only have her previous albums. I had a feeling Amazon would have it because they usually do carry titles not found on iTunes, and luckily the program allows me to transfer to iPod. Anyway, the rest of her album was pretty cool. Definitely a unique sound, which is a bit hard to come by in R&B and hip-hop or music in general these days. Sing on, Estelle!

I had only heard Estelle's song with Kanye while I was in Italy. Thought it was fun but not overly complex. I decided to give the rest of the album a try and was pleasantly surprised. She has a great beat, some songs with a jazzy-hip hop feel, and great lyrics.

Note: I bought the MP3 album version from Amazon, and "American Boy" has a curse word censored out. Not happy about that. But amazon's price was ridiculous, so I'm not going to complain.

This is definitely one of my top picks for 2008. Estelle has shown so much versatility on this album it is very refreshing. She shifts from pop, to reggea, to neo-soul without skipping a beat. While everyone is still being wowed by American Boy... I have moved on to "Back In Love". If you haven't already... check it out.