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Review: Jack Foley
OLD school soul collides with new school hip-hop attitude for
Tweet's second album, It's Me Again, which comes backed
with production from the likes of Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Craig
Brockman, Soul Diggaz and Nisan Stewart.
Tweet is, of course, the singing, song-writing, guitar-playing
musician who was snapped up by Missy Elliott's Goldmind Inc label
in 2002.
Her debut album, Southern Hummingbird, spawned the hit
single, Oops (Oh My), which introduced the artist as
a wordsmith of genuine worth.
Three years on and the quality shows no sign of letting up, with
It's Me Again emerging as an even more sassy and confident
version of the Tweet persona.
Lead single, Turn Da Lights Off (which featured Missy
Elliott) was a retro-heavy slice of R&B that cheekily used
a break and intro from Nat King Cole's Lost April and
Luther and Cheryl Lynn's If This World Were Mine.
Yet it contains all the energy and attitude you might expect
from a Missy Elliott production.
The rest of the album hurtles along in a similar vein, mixing
old-school and contemporary styles with effortless aplomb.
Steer, for instance, is a deeply sultry soul anthem,
with a striking beat, that features Tweet's vocals at their most
striking, while a Motown vibe runs through My Man, which
harks back to the vocal style of early Aretha at times.
Rocafella artist, Rell, appears on Could It Be, which
looks set to become one of the album's anthems, while Tweet's
teenage daughter, Tashawna, duets with her mother on the emotive
Two Of Us, thereby hinting at a legacy for the future
for the Tweet family.
Another highlight is the distinctly urban We Don't Need No
Water, which contains enough attitude to give the likes of
Usher and Nelly a run for their money, thanks to its grinding
bassline, urgent beats and no-nonsense lyrics ('we don't need
no water, let the motherfucker burn').
What remains striking throughout, however, is Tweet's ability
to mix styles, which lends each track a unique identity of its
own.
In R&B terms, It's Me Again puts Tweet on the map
as a female artist to genuinely take notice of.
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Track listing:
1. Intro/It's Me Again
2. Turn da Lights Off
3. Iceberg
4. Could It Be
5. You
6. Cab Ride
7. Things I Don't Mean
8. My Man
9. Sports, Sex & Food
10. Small Change
11. Two of Us
12. Where Do We Go from Here
13. Steer
14. I'm Done
15. Bonus: We Don't Need No Water
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