A Different Me

Performer: Keyshia Cole
Artist: Amina Harris; Nas; 2Pac; Monica
Producer: Manny Halley; Keyshia Cole; Ron Fair
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Audio Remasterer: Bernie Grundman. Oakland-born R&B songstress Keyshia Cole has been crafting top-shelf R&B that straddles the stylistic divide between the stridently modern, club-oriented R&B of contemporaries like Ne-Yo and the more backward-looking, classicist soul of Mary J. Blige. A DIFFERENT ME unquestionably favors the latter style. Even on tracks like "Oh-Oh, Yeah-Yea," which features dance-floor ready production from the Outsyderz and a guest appearance from Nas, Cole adopts a self-consciously dramatic, melismatic style of delivery that evokes the vocal virtuosity of divas like Blige and Whitney Houston. This is not to say that A DIFFERENT ME is a wholly conservative affair however. Though much of the album features a more lyrically introspective and musically ambitious side of Cole's artistic personality, tracks like the propulsive, Polow Da Don-produced "Make Me Over" ought to satisfy fans looking for more energetic material. A Different Me offers more dimensions, from lyrical and production standpoints, than Keyshia Cole's first two albums. Everything she recorded prior to this came from some degree of pain. Even though Just Like You's "Heaven Sent" was as beatific as anything else on the charts throughout 2008, its sentiment came more from a sense of relief in the wake of relationships gone sour, and "Let It Go" was made for the club but dealt with "roaming dogs." Overall, this is Cole's most free-spirited and adventurous album to date, and it is not without its stretches where reach exceeds grasp, like the jazzed-up, over-busy statement of purpose "Make Me Over" and the surprisingly saccharine "This Is Us." Yet there's a core of at least seven songs here that rate as highly as the best from the first two albums, and they're anything but reheated. "Don't Stop" beams with energy and pure, uncomplicated joy. "Oh-Oh, Yeah-Yea" is yearningly seductive, from Cole's pleas to its drawn-out tides of strings. In "Thought You Should Know," she doesn't drop her guard entirely while revealing more vulnerability than ever. "No Other" is the only track that sounds cut from the same cloth as Just Like You, and the resemblance is only in sound, with the equally urgent and sweepingly dramatic "Shoulda Let You Go" a definite reference, but the emotions between the two are starkly contrasting, with regret exchanged for aching desire. Cole pushes herself into new territory and becomes a more versatile songwriter and vocalist in convincing, frequently thrilling, fashion. Here's where the comparisons begin to fade away. ~ Andy Kellman

Rolling Stone (p.76) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "'Make Me Over' is a shimmying, string-pierce vamp...and 'No Other' pumps Spanish guitar into a Mary J.-style monogamy ode." Spin (p.78) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Accentuating joy over pain to reflect her ascent from troubled beginnings, this is the rare upbeat R&B disc that still feels real." Entertainment Weekly (p.63) - "On A DIFFERENT ME, this Oakland-born belter turns her focus from heartbreak to happiness." Billboard (p.39) - "[O]n the noteworthy ballads 'You Complete Me' and 'Brand New,' Cole exhibits a growing confidence and command of her vocal talent." XXL (Magazine) (p.110) - "Opposites attract on the acoustic gem 'This Is Us'....Promising an exclusive love, Keyshia lyrically seduces her man on 'Brand New'..."

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