Talk a Good Game

The album quickly stabilizes with satisfying, if mostly unexciting, material. Other than the lack of European dance-pop, the main difference between this set and Here I Am is the presence of Rowland's most revealing and powerful song, "Dirty Laundry."

"Dirty Laundry" is brave (and dramatic) stuff. But the track itself, a forgettable slow groove, makes the tune more compelling as confession than music. People should venture further into Talk a Good Game, because a good chunk of the rest of the album--a mix of easy pop, shiny dance tracks, and a dab of retro soul--reflects a better balance of sound and sentiment.

["Dirty Laundry" is] so raw and visceral that we finely see her as intended: vulnerable, flawed, and totally real. She tries replicating that authenticity, but there’s only the uber-cliché “I don’t care; we’re over” anthem “Gone” and the album’s superficially enjoyable title track, which Rowland approaches with some intriguing level of nuance.

Rowland serves up a smorgasbord of her triumphant and sometimes profane fourth studio album. [21 Jun 2013, p.68]

Considering her career so far, this is super cool, contemporary grown-up R&B that shows just how far Rowland has come.

Emotionally raw, [Dirty Laundry is] far more intimate than her sexier songs, proving that her best recipe for success is baring her soul rather than her bedroom secrets.

Instead of focusing on escape through pleasure, Talk A Good Game concentrates on conversation, and when necessary, confrontation.

The album, however, is a solid body of work--albeit with some questionable filler song--but it’s hard to pinpoint something which makes the album stand out and gives it the spark it needs to allow Kelly to separate herself from the countless other female R&B artists out there.

Talk a Good Game's standout tracks prove that she's closer to carving a niche for herself than she has been on prior efforts that suppressed rather than addressed that difficulty.

Talk a Good Game is her realness in full flower, an album that balances world-weariness about relationships with infectious dollops of sexual agency, tackling the vagaries of love almost exclusively and offering anthems for experiences that every woman has had (or will have) at some point.