It's a tightly woven scheme whose anthemic simplicity is deceptive and leaves room for sophisticated (but still fierce) arrangements. [10 Mar 2007]

While fans of her early-'90s material will find much to embrace here, those that rallied 'round the singer during her hip-hop days may feel lost and abandoned.

With constant acknowledgement of imperfections, Simpson separates herself from the peppy Lindsay Lohans and Hilary Duffs. [22 Oct 2005]

A respectable effort.

Sometimes it's good bizarre. Other times it's bad bizarre.

But after moving past those first moments of seeming artist/song incongruity, the listener will discover an album full of pleasant surprises and vocals that show Stewart in a most flattering light.

It's a shame that the end result, the first under the Queen name in 13 years, is not very memorable.

Aside from a few catchy club tracks, there is nothing all that exciting about Chingy's third album.

Less polish and more attitude are welcome changes that fire up the rock numbers and give them more snap. [8 Oct 2005]

Enya keeps the comfort factor high with several compositions that are arguably descendants of her 1989 pop hit, "Orinoco Flow." She steps outside of that zone on the first single, "Only Time," an elegant effort that is wrapped in soothing harmonics fondly reminiscent of vintage Beach Boys tunes...

Too many tracks meander aimlessly without finding the perfect beat.

Morgan simply lets his rage rock, infusing the album with the same kind of active/ alt-rock straddling approach that's vaulted Seether's previous releases to gold status.

What this channel lacks is true feeling and originality.

No, kids, it's not that scatological jokes aren't funny, just that these scatological jokes aren't funny.

In general, Federline enunciates well. [11 Nov 2006]

Picking up the lyrical gauntlet thrown down by such neo-soul sistahs as Angie Stone, Jill Scott, and musical influence/labelmate Rachelle Ferrell, this Houston-bred singer/songwriter sparkles with colorfully imaged songs about love won, lost, and anticipated -- laid against an R&B backdrop rhythmically punctuated with hip-hop, Latin, pop, jazz, rock, and country.

A baker's dozen's worth of featherlight ditties that range in quality from guilty pleasures to already-dated clunkers.

As projects of this nature go, this is a remarkably cohesive, high-quality set. For the most part, the material is appealing, if not terribly memorable.