The record begins with someone cramming their mouth full of potato chips and sucking on soda, moving on a couple of tracks later into Kelis’ radio hit “Milkshake.” The references are ironic considering that you know this lady goes nowhere near any of that stuff. She is cut like a supermodel and is as talented as a superproducer. Kelis Rogers is involved in the songwriting on nearly half of this record—a tall order considering that the other writers and producers appearing are those such as Dallas Austin, Pharrell Williams, and Raphael Saadiq. Her smokey, husky voice permeates their work like fine cream in black coffee, untouched by the spoon, untouched by the stir stick, weaving its way slowly through every verse, every line. She believes in her words and forces nothing, manufactures nothing. It is a purity that runs throughout the music, the words, and even the artwork. It is also appropriate that the appearance of Andre 3000 (Outkast) is on a track called “Millionaire,” seeing as everything the man touches of late is turning to gold. It is, without question, the best song on the record—a production which involves no filler and no corner of any song left untouched. Nothing meanders, nothing drops off of any cliffs—everything just finds its place, with just the right amount of breathing room just when you need it. From Star Trak ( www.startrak.com). —Lance Walker
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