Finally, an album to be excited about. While most pop and R&B is too formulaic to even mention, Gray breaks the mundane with her authentic, introspective debut On How Life Is. She more than proves her talent as a singer and songwriter. Emotion spills over every song, and you can’t help but dig her music.
Remember listening to Lenny Kravitz’s debut and how cool it sounded? Hearing “Mr. Cabdriver” for the first time? While she doesn’t sound like him, the same tenacity and energy are there. Love, death, sex, joy-it’s all here.
Cool, bluesy, and more authentically R&B than most swill being produced these days, Gray has tossed her loaded dice onto the table. Her first single “I Try” ( that I still play over and over and over) and “Still” are her two torchsongs and show off her sultry vocals.
“Why Didn’t You Call Me?” unblushingly asks what women the world over want to know, while “Do Something” will give potheads reason to stop smoking and get off their asses. The rest if us just need to get off our asses. The girl can also cuss like a sailor. “Caligula” and “Sex-O-Matic Venus Freak” voice a hearty sexuality full of humor and lust that Christina and Britany lack.
The theme of death as liberation is not the typical stuff of debut pop albums, but Gray has a few cards up her sleeve. It’s a bit startling. Yet Gray dances with death on two songs: “I Can’t Wait to Meetchu”, an effusive gospel dedicated to meeting her maker, and “The Letter”, a musical suicide note possessing sobering lyrics and a danceable beat. It doesn’t end on a sad note; actually these are two of the most grooving songs on the disc. Gracy’s voice shows how sweet life is, but is no stranger to survival either.
The woman was cheated out of a Grammy in 2000, but rest assured she will get her due.
Macy Gray On How Life Is
