Olivia - Olivia

Overall: 6.21

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A story like Olivia’s has become all too common these days. Girl from the hood with the mouth of a sailor gets in touch with her “Inner soul”. Like too many before and too many after, we get a decent 1st singlefrom them and then they are gone to let the next come through. Olivia doesn’t lack the talent to stay in the game, but the charisma to stand her out in the crowd. You'd expect the album, after the tough and in-your-face single “Bizounce”, we’d hear a beat driven, urban album. No so though, only 4 out of the 12 tracks are uptempo. The rest are drowsy, lights low ballads that have nothing to offer. It is like the mixer was left with a sparkle sound, bird chirp, and a few acoustic guitar chords to make up the other 8 tracks. Olivia’s voice has attitude, and is rambunctious which doesn’t float to well on those tracks. You don’t listen to the track and think “Boy, she is a pretty bad singer” but more “Something isn’t right, I'm changing the song” Olivia plays it smart with picking her first single to be “Bizounce”, the ticked off girlfriend anthem. The unstable sound of the drumlike sound on the slicked hip-hop beat works well. On “Are You Capable?” she spins into both a singer and emcee, asking her man if he can handle her in the bedroom. On the trippy, pop side to hip-hop track, “You Got The Damn Thing” would be a club favorite. As long as Olivia isn’t stop in her tracks by more high profile stars with similar tracks. The other side of the album maybe plays it a little too safe as it never leaves the boundaries that have been unofficially made. The tracks aren't adventure soul; they are stripped of personality. On tracks like “Silly Bitch In Love” and “’Til He Comes Home”, she is very soft spoken, portraying a light touch which comes off as extremely unbelievable after the first 3 tracks. The only semi-decent ballad is “When 2 Souls Touch”, while it’s not groundbreaking, the general flow and sound of the track moves along nicely. Is it worth buying though? It goes from good to bad to ugly along the way but it just ends up being only half satisfying and soul music should really be taken care of by soul artist. So, no, maybe though. While you say “adios” to Olivia, we know a new singer just like her is coming this way. - Originally Reviewed: (3-16-03) Re-reviewed: (-)