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Spell My Name
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Barnes and Noble
Spell My Name
Current price: $17.99
Barnes and Noble
Spell My Name
Current price: $17.99
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Size: CD
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Recorded for
,
follows the
-issued
by only two years. That's the shortest period between proper
studio albums. Granted, this is similarly compact, even with its appended tracks: the solo version of the pre-album single "Do It," and another
collaboration, a devotional ballad grounded in classic Southern soul that doesn't fit with what precedes it. The title song is pulsing modern quiet storm concerning a dalliance with a lover half
's age, played by duet partner
with
-like deference (thereby flipping the standard older man/younger woman scenario more than her
collaboration a decade earlier). Apart from the finely applied strings and a sense of temptation, it's not really representative of the album.
spends the rest of the set succumbing to desire recognized as ill-fated, mourning unfulfillment, waving off a cheating ex, and swearing during the emotional peak -- in one of many piano ballads -- that she wishes nothing but the best for the one who got away, while each wrenched note conveys devastation. Only the pleasant if indistinctive neo-disco opener is uptempo. The rest is mostly glowering ballads and conflicted slow jams, exemplified by the smoldering slow stepper "Move On," featuring the compatible
on sympathetic background vocals and guitar.
's elegant distress cuts through everything with conviction. ~ Andy Kellman