Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 09/04/07
Label: Geffen

Back in 2000, when Macy Gray was a Grammy winning, all-conquering soul sensation, a croaky voiced diva with a crack-pipe perspective who the masses took to their hearts, she was kind enough to share the love with a struggling hip hop trio. Lending her inimitable voice and bankable name to the jaunty "Request Line", she may not have made the Black Eyed Peas famous, but the much needed profile boost certainly kept them in a deal. So it's only fair, now that they're the ones doing all the conquering and Macy's career is in desperate need of a lifeline, that main man Will.I.Am should return the favour.

As it turns out, she couldn't have picked a better friend to have. Not only has the now über-successful BEP lent his much in-demand writing and production skills to Gray's fourth studio album - skills currently helping Justin Timberlake, Fergie, Snoop Dogg, John Legend, Busta Rhymes, Ciara and the Pussycat Dolls pay their not inconsiderable bills. He's also put the record out on his own label and invited some of his famous friends along to make "Big" the worthy follow-up to her "On How Life Is" debut, which has so far eluded her.

And so it is that "Big" feels like a proper album, with quality songs, classic grooves and a guestlist befitting a woman who was once the biggest thing to happen to the coffee table. Natalie Cole adds a little class to the break-up sway of "Finally Made Me Happy", Fergie puts the sass in "Glad You're Here"'s backing vocals and the cartoon pop bounce of "Treat Me Like Your Money" is made all the more excitable thanks to Will.I.Am's wide-eyed couplets. But it's the ultra smooth funk-glide of "Okay" and the rock-rap strut of "Get Out", both co-written, co-produced and co-sung by one Justin Timberlake, which rate as the album's clear stand-outs and most threaten her has-been status.

Collaborations and pop star friends aside, the critical factor to "Big"'s artistic success is Macy herself. At last she's managed to put her raging-nutjob alter ego back in the box long enough to recapture the innocence and unconfined joy which made "On How Life Is" irresistible. Singing about her children on "What I Gotta Do" or finding new love on "Ghetto Love", she's an intoxicating personality, not an irritating caricature. Ultimately, with no guaranteed radio hits, "Big" may well be too little too late to actually turnaround Gray's career. Whatever the commercial outcome though, no one can say that this anything other than a supreme return to form.

    by Dan Gennoe