ALBUM REVIEW: AMERIE

With a new label home, Amerie really set fourth to put together a great album that was progressive to prove her growth as an artist and musical ear and with the release of her Island Def Jam debut, "In Love & War" Amerie really sticks to that sentiment. All the songs are brilliant. They explore different musical genres such as Funk, Rock, and old school Hip-Hop, and adult contemporary creating a R&B sound that is atypical, yet commercially appealing at the same time; however not Pop. Her vocals are beautiful as usual. She sticks with her spinto technique, and strains a lot more than before on hooks and harmonizes some of her lead vocals which adds a soulful depth to her music.

I recommend the entire thing, and really hope people support Amerie, because poor sales will definitely mean she gets dropped despite poor promotion on Island Def Jam's end. She definitely falls into the same boat as Letoya Luckett where much of her album does not necessarily have standout, radio singles, though it is still a decent, cohesive, and solid effort. This set could definitely win a Grammy for Best Contemporary R&B Album in 2011. It's funny how people embrace some artists music over others. It's crazy how people like Keri Hilson or a Trey Songz has blown up all of a sudden. His music, for instance, has not really changed radically, and radio is even accepting unconventional ballads from him. If the right Amerie track is released, she could blow up like Trey, but that would also mean she would need to do some good hook work for the likes of Gucci Mane, Lil' Wayne, and Drake. However, another option for boosting Amerie's appeal could include remakes. I know she could put out a nice remake of Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love." I hope Island pushes to release "Pretty Brown" as a single since Trey is really hot right now with R&B's leading vets duet-ting with him like Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, and even Mary J. Blige.

Standout Tracks: Why R U, Pretty Brown, More Than Love, The Flowers, Red Eye, and Different People