The Sellout

It must be hard being Macy Gray and knowing that every new album is compared to the high standard set by her 1999 debut On How Life Is, for none of her albums have since topped that. Certainly not 2007's Big, full of trendy collaborations that upstaged her personality and hence flopped.

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Macy Gray was already 32 years old when her debut album arrived in 1999. If she sounded, even then, like a whiskey-soaked Billie Holiday/Aretha Franklin, well, she was no ingénue. On How Life Is had the slink of neo-soul, the consciousness of hip-hop, and a bunch of strong songs that Gray herself co-wrote in her years singing jazz and studying screenwriting.

Full Review | More Reviews from Publication | Top Rated of 2010