Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 04/17/2007
The take-off success of
"Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)" made
Lumidee an overnight
pop star, yet it placed her at a disadvantage. She had to rush
Almost Famous, a set of glorified demos and one hot song, and she seemed to disappear after her follow-up single flopped. Even those who bought the album were likely to think it would be the last they'd hear from
Lumidee. However, she stuck around, at least outside the States, through a
reggaeton hit with
Speedy (
"Sientelo") and a track on the
FIFA World Cup 2006 compilation. In the States, then,
Unexpected is somewhat unexpected. Now on
TVT instead of
Universal, she and her crew of producers -- principally
J Marty, while
Lenky,
Scott Storch,
Red Spyda,
Wyclef Jean, and a couple others contribute one or two tracks -- whip up a set that is spit-shined and buffed compared to
Almost Famous. It has been nearly four years since she first hit, so she has had plenty of time to regroup. There's much more nuance to her voice, whether she's singing or rapping. She's tougher, more womanly. Though these qualities make
Unexpected a much better album than
Almost Famous, it is not without its awkward moves, like back-to-back loose interpretations of
Patrick Swayze's
"She's Like the Wind" and
Eugene McDaniels'
"Feel Like Makin Love" (popularized by
Roberta Flack). Though the former re-introduced her to the
pop charts, both fall flat. The most effective tracks, like
"You Got Me" (featuring
N.O.R.E.) and
"I'm Up" (featuring
Jim Jones), tend to balance left-of-center keyboard vamps with hard-to-resist vocal hooks. Most peculiar is
"In It for the Money," where she (with an assist from
Snoop Dogg) expresses distaste for the music industry ("They got me turnin' off the radio/Don't watch no videos/I can't get with it, no") and shamelessly claims that money is her only motivator. As uneven and occasionally puzzling as a 17-track
pop album gets, this is nonetheless a marked improvement over the debut.
~Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
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