Album Review
by SashaS
30-4-2003
   
   
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Macy Gray
Macy Gray: 'The Trouble With Being Myself'
(Epic)
Macy Gray: incongruity re-routes panache


Macy Gray, the bird on a wire of neo-soul, quirky R&B, strange pop songs… The woman with unmistakable vocal style and sound that’s been variously described as Marge Simpson on helium or ‘banshee-diva’… She is all of it and much more, an individual, an eccentric, an offbeat artist that should be treated with respect and patience because… Because there are too many copies out there the mould has worn off.

‘The Trouble With Being Myself’ is Macy’s third album, a follow-up to the uneven and way-out ‘The ID’ of few years ago. That album was a bit too much at an ‘experimental’ end which was not entirely appreciated by the crowd that loved her debut, ‘On How Life Is’ (1999). Thus, the new one falls between the two; it has its moments and an amount of muddled prospects.

‘Come Together’ and ‘When I See You’ are among the btter cuts, both finely crafted disco-pop that nears territory of Missy Elliott and Mary J. Blige without adding to or surpassing. ‘Jesus For A Day’ and ‘She Ain’t Right For You’ are damn radio-friendly and probably because they are direct offspring of her mega-hit ‘I Try’. [Is it plagiarism if you recycle own ideas? I’ll ask the audience, Chris… Cough, you bastard!]

It surely ain’t a perfect album – and what is nowadays? – but it equally blasts the tedium of the modern R&B and rap that crosses over too much in its eternal chase of riches. (Remember, all the things you can’t take?) Gray has characteristics that should be admired because there is increasing lack of during this continually dumbed-down brand of l’esprit de tempe. She is herself, she is one-off, the nearest we’ll ever get to a female Prince.

Macy’s is the ‘Minneapolis wonder’’s lost sister and it is evident from the opening two tracks, ‘When I See You’ (ought-to-be a huge hit) and ‘It Ain’t The Money’ (Beck makes a guest-appearance), this woman just funks it, hunk! [The latter one also pays tribute to Funkadelic legacy, as Prince had acknowledged so many times in the past.] ‘Screamin’’ is adorned with a gospel tinge and it might be the best track here, truly reaching the standard of her debut’s quality.

When her love for music loses itself in a jam, you just gotta go with the flow, open up and dip in. Open mind leads to inner calm and even the songs that drag down, such as ‘She Don’t Write Songs About You’, work in her favour. Gray at her worst – mutated-reggae of ‘My Fondest Childhood Memories’ or some jazzy workouts (closing ‘Every Now And Then’) that should have been re-thought – is far superior to, for instance, Craig David or Ms Dynamite, regardless of how many awards the latter gets or however many nights the former sells out at the RAH!

The trouble with being and our/media perception of herself – Gray is unhinged… Macy for the President! Of Disney-republic, naturlich.

7.6/10


SashaS
30-4-2003
Macy Gray’s album ‘The Trouble With Being Myself’ is issued 28 April 2003 by Epic