Queen Pen - My Melody (CD)

Someone Else's Melody

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Feb 1, 2002

Slickly produced, but lacking in both substance and singularity, My Melody at least highlighted the production talents of Teddy Riley, putting him up there with Brian McKnight and others in terms of combination singing-songwriting-produ
cing ability. ...But then again, his name is not on the cover of the album, now is it? Riley did manage to attract such luminaries such as the legendary Ron Isley ("I'm Gon' Blow Up"), out lesbian bassist Me'shell Ndegeocello ("Girlfriend", whose duet appearance set tongues to wagging from MTV to Vibe to BET),Phil Collins (actually re-singing the chorus from his first big hit on "Get Away") and Mr. Cheeks of the now somewhat directionless Lost Boyz. The samples and replayed elements that QP raps over are quite smooth and pleasant, and have a familiar feel to all of them (because most of them were MAJOR hit songs - beware the Bad Boy Records trap) without being terribly insulting to the original artists. On the title track there is even an Anita Ward soundalike -- or maybe even Anita Ward herself; she hasn't been busy the last twenty years or so. Unfortunately, the problem lies in the mike skills department: QP has few. Her pacing is iffy at best, and she puts the stress on the wrong words in most lines, resulting in an occasionally jarring contrast given the beats she has to work with. The verdict is this -- slickness can only cover lack of purpose only so much. Queen Pen herself is either too boring or too uninterested (not a good sign on a debut album) to push this work over the top. Read more Less