Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 14/05/07
Label: RCA

Tempting though it may be to regard Amerie Rogers as the personification of a blank R&B-pop disc, whose very existence depends on being overwritten by assorted top-line producers, it's a far from accurate picture. The 27-year-old may have taken a back seat on her 2002 debut, which was both written and produced by Rich "Crazy In Love" Harrison, but for her 2005 follow-up, "Touch" - which spawned the feel-good hit of that summer, "1 Thing" - Amerie wrote every track but one.

She's clearly an artist who learns fast, which is presumably why she's now ditched Harrison (who also produced her sophomore effort) in favour of co-producing with a raft of different talents, including Bryan Michael Cox (Mariah Carey, Mary J Blige, Kelly Rowland) and DJ Premier, who most recently put the old-skool finish on Christina Aguilera's "Back To Basics". "Because I Love It" is consequently less easy to categorise than Amerie's previous efforts; it's essentially an exercise in R&B pop, but with notes of hip hop soul, '80s pop and '70s soul.

"Take Control" - featuring backing vocals (and co-production) by Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo - is the lead single and, although it's not quite "1 Thing", its lean'n'funky guitar coda, staccato rhythm, brass punch and overall sexy minimalism make it the album's clear winner. Front-loading the highlights is not the smartest move for any LP, but if it stacks up the cheekily old-skool "Some Like It" - which samples Malcolm McLaren's "World's Famous" - with the sassy "Make Me Believe" (after Patti Jo's 1975 cover of the Curtis Mayfield number), retro soul belter "Gotta Work" (Aretha meets Quincy Jones-era Jacko) and the aforementioned "Take Control", who's complaining?

Alas, things take a downturn at the half-way mark with two particularly grisly exercises in '80s pop - "Crush", which is equal parts "True Blue"-era Madonna and…Bananarama and the supremely irritating "Crazy Wonderful", which was apparently "inspired" by the vexing issue of lipstick's lack of staying power. Amerie has often spoken of her love of Korean pop (her mother is Korean), which is why it resembles the kind of tinny, anodyne pap you might hear blasting out somewhere while you're trying to focus on your egg fried rice. "All Roads" is a different kind of ghastly - a hysterically over emoting, multi-track-athon of Mariah-like magnitude - while tacked-on closer, "1 Thing" (yes, the two-year-old very same) rather smacks of record company nervousness.

Just be thankful of the sequencing decision - it means you can press "stop" precisely half way and declare with your hand on your heart that it's "Because I Love It".

    by Sharon O'Connell