macygray-big music reviews Virgin Media
Raspy diva hopes to get big again with Black Eyed Peas aided comeback
While everyone knows Macy Gray and her weathered, Billie Holiday croak, no output has backed up such fame since her Grammy-winning breakthrough smash hit I Try. Two previous albums flopped badly while most coverage has centred more on how bonkers she reportedly is than on her songs.
And so for this fourth album, her first in four years, Gray's heart is set on pop rehabilitation via the conduit of Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am (John Legend, Pussycat Dolls) on production duties.
The pair give Gray's sound a more contemporary R&B feel, not least on the Justin Timberlake-co-produced Okay and Get Out, as well as taking the Amy Winehouse route of a jazzed-up Motown style on Shoo Be Doo to good effect. Stand out tracks are her more adventurous and irreverent moments, such as the James Brown-sampling deep funk of Ghetto Love and the tongue-in-cheek domestic tale of Strange Behaviour. On such songs, Gray sounds unafraid to cut her larynx loose on interesting diversions and is well suited to such arch lines as "I got a lover who is ghetto for real, take me to movies and he's carrying steel".
On the flipside, Big contains far too many slushy, over-earnest neo-soul fillers that may placate a play-it-safe major label but are ill-suited to Gray's maverick style. Glad You're Here, featuring a seemingly pointless guest appearance from Fergie, Slowly and One For Me belong on a completely different album.
Thus, Big feels not quite as good as it could have been. These gripes aside, in safer hands on this latest effort, Gray sounds comfortable enough to let her kooky side shine through. That should be enough to see her get big again for the right reasons.
Also try:
Lauryn Hill: The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill
Amy Winehouse: Back To Black
Mary J Blige: No More Drama
Erykah Badu: Baduizm
