As revealed in the multiple pictures in the CD package and in the video featured as part of the disc's multi-media content,
Anastacia
is, in appearance, yet another teen dream with cascades of blonde hair and an exposed navel (though perhaps her ever-present, and ever-changing, spectacles are supposed to signal a higher intellectual content). But her musical models aren't
Britney Spears
or
Christina Aguilera
, they are
Aretha Franklin
,
Tina Turner
, and
Martha Wash
.
possesses a big, expressive alto voice that her many co-writers and producers (primarily
Rik Wake
[
Celine Dion
Mariah Carey
] and the team of ex-
Color Me Badd
member
Sam Watters
and
Louis Biancaniello
, though
Carl Sturken
Evan Rogers
, authors of
'N Sync
's
"God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You,"
have two tracks) use in updated
R&B
dance
funk
tracks.
"I'm Outta Love,"
which just missed topping the
charts, is an aggressive dancefloor item, and its follow-up, the title song, is in a
style reminiscent of
's '80s work.
"I Ask of You"
is one of those slow, deliberate big
ballads
that recalls
"And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going"
as well as that song's singer,
Jennifer Holliday
. And so it goes. The only real misstep on the album is the inevitable
Diane Warren
adult contemporary
romantic
ballad
"Late Last Night,"
which forces the singer to rein in her voice, though even then she doesn't really negotiate its lyrical complexity. Despite her toothsome appearance,
may be too old school to break through in the U.S., though this album has been a commercial success overseas. (The American version has been altered from the foreign one, with a couple of tracks added and dropped.) But
Macy Gray
demonstrated that a broad audience may respond to an older style if the singer herself is distinguished enough.
doesn't have the kind of unique timbre that
Gray
does -- in fact, the minute she opens her mouth she starts reminding you of other singers, especially
-- but she is clearly a big talent, and that should count for something. ~ William Ruhlmann