Macy Gray

After a four-year absence, Macy Gray returns with her most accessible album to date. The production -- supplied in large part by Will.I.Am -- is perfectly polished, the glossy veneer providing a nice juxtaposition to Gray's gravelly voice. Tracks such as "Okay" (co-produced by Justin Timberlake) and "Glad You're Here" (featuring Fergie) are both timely and timeless. Lyrically, the album follows an arc, with Gray exploring the rapture and despair of romantic separation before tackling the responsibilities of raising a child as a single mother and the hopes of a warmer tomorrow.

When Billie Holiday moved from Vocalion to Decca in 1944, she insisted that her first
session for the hit-oriented label include a string section. It worked, too -- "Lover Man"
sold. In the direct corporate descendant of that shift, Macy Gray, her miraculous burred
croon far more Holiday-like than most voices subjected to the comparison, gets the same
treatment from new producer Ron Fair, whose credits include Lisa Loeb, Christi... More >

When Billie Holiday moved from Vocalion to Decca in 1944, she insisted that her first session for the hit-oriented label include a string section. It worked, too--"Lover Man" sold. In the direct corporate descendant of that shift, Macy Gray, her miraculous burred croon far more Holiday-like than most voices subjected to the comparison, gets the same treatment from new producer Ron Fair, whose credits include Lisa Loeb, Christina Aguilera, the Black Eyed Peas, and the presidency of A&M Records. As will.i.am's programming on "Ghetto Love" and Larry Gold's violins on "Okay" remind us, there's string writing and then there's string writing. Fair's is concentrated sugar water, and Gray, whose words have never bitten like her voice and who adds kink with a murder song as pointless as "I Committed Murder" was pointed, too often pens lyrics and sings tunes just as cloying. The strategy may work and may not. But no way will it yield a "Lover Man." (Grade - ** 1/2)