Macy Gray
The Very Best Of

THE REVIEW

In music, there's room for everyone. For a Joss Stone who delights in reviving (well, mind you, very well) the '70s soul, for an Alicia Keys who prefers it in a mixture of pop and R'n'B, for a Cassandra Wilson who flirts with jazz and blues, for an Erykah Badu with her eccentric contaminations, Jill Scott; just to name a few powerful living women in their genre.

And where do we place Natalie Renee McIntyre, known as Macy Gray? The American singer has nothing to envy in her colleagues mentioned above (well, maybe compared to some of them, she's as ugly as sin, but that's meant professionally). From a young age, Macy had a special relationship with black music and a hatred for her strange voice. Putting aside the latter, she moved to Los Angeles and began to dedicate herself to jazz with diligence. She was noticed by some record producers who signed her, resulting in her acclaimed debut album "On How Life Is" followed by "The Id" produced by Rick Rubin, someone with a knack for good music, already seen handling the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers of "Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik", AC/DC, etc. "The Trouble with Being Myself" was sunk by critics; it's a commercial album, with a good sheen of glamour glaze (considering the cover was done by David LaChapelle) and the single "When I See You" even made it to Festivalbar. At this point, Macy engages in a comprehensive review of her career and released in 2004 a "Best of".

In reality, there's nothing that differentiates this greatest hits from many others circulating: there are all the hits, the unreleased track which in this case is "Love Is Gonna Get You", an intriguing and danceable piece but not on par with the rest of the production, the obligatory cover, namely "Walk This" by Aerosmith which turns out to be better than the unreleased track itself and then there are the remixes that have the great ability to disfigure a beautiful track in the worst way. However, what prevents the album from being removed from the stereo is the presence of excellent songs.

The sultry tones of "I Try", the melancholic sweetness of "Still", the fun "Sexual Revolution" are clear examples of the album's beauty. "I've Committed a Murder" tells us about how Macy bumped off her boyfriend's employer because she fired him, took the earnings, and flew away with him to a "Jamaican paradise". A series of songs that don't bore and shine with originality. And then there's that quirky voice that manages to embellish everything. Even the collaborations play along, from Erykah Badu in "Sweet Baby" to Pharoahe Monch with "It Ain't the Money", from Fatboy Slim dealing with "Demons" to Norman Cook. In this album, you can find a series of soul songs shaken by slight hip-hop influences and lightened by a pop touch.

"The Very Best of Macy Gray" is a good starting point for those who want to get to know the artist better but don't want to listen to her entire discography. Besides, always better than the horrid "Big", which is completely devoid of the compositional freshness that had completely permeated, with its ups and downs, Gray's career, as foreshadowed by the single "Finally Make Me Happy."

Not to be discarded...