- Label
- Mercury
- Release date
- 16th November 2009
- Genre
- R&B
- Buy this album
- Order CD
12th album from the unstoppable soul diva.
Soon to be heard in a billion hairdressing salons from Washington to Walthamstow, the latest instalment of R&B’s most ubiquitously enjoyed artist finds her delivering exactly what her audience wants.
More Than Just Friends, which arrives three quarters of the way through is indicative of how many buttons she can now press within the same track — there’s the soaring falsetto; the fast and smooth flow; the suggestion of something saucy in every line (and quite literally in the nonsensical phrase “we can ketchup like tomato”); fabulous trade name-dropping (getting Jimmy Choos and MacDonald’s in the same track is some feat) and velvety, over layered vocals.
An equal split between glossy ballads (including a slightly cloying cover of I Want To Know What Love Is) and punchy auto-tune pop (Obsessed and Up Out My Face are both up-tempo and instantly catchy), Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel may feel formulaic but it doesn’t fall into the traps of many current R&B albums – there’s just one production team (instead of ten), a refreshing lack of guest stars and no filler. Her most satisfying album for a decade.
More to try:
Shakira: Oral Fixation Volume 2
Janet Jackson: Nasty
Ciara: Fantasy Ride
Ne-Yo: Year Of The Gentleman
