Fantasia Barrino

Free Yourself

Not as Good As I'd Expected, But the Most Hip AI Record

Review Score:

(8/10)
I immediately fell in love with Fantasia from watching AI3. She definitely deserved to be the winner. She undoubtedly has one of the best female voices in the game right now. Fantasia's the only new female artist who can vocally challenge new millenium divas like Alicia Keys, Ashanti, BeyoncÃ©, and Christina Aguilera. Fantasia's voice is strong enough to stand up against such wonderful voices as those.

Her debut album isn't as good as i'd expected, but it's still a wonderful debut. My favorites here are: "Ain't Gon' Beg You", "Truth Is", "Selfish (I Want U 2 Myself)", "Summertime", "It's All Good", "I Believe", & "Don't Act Right" (my favorite).

Another one of my favorites is "Baby Mama". Although it sounds kind of funny at first listen, I love the concept of this song.

The production & the writing on this album are on point, as Jazze Pha, Missy Elliott, The Isley Brothers, Ciara, Tamyra Gray, Jermaine Dupri, Brian Michael Cox, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, & The Underdogs all appeared for songwriting and production purposes. But, the only thing that Fantasia does need to work on is hitting those lower notes perfectly. Although "Truth Is" is one of my songpicks on this album, she was not finding the lower notes in that song and when it came to those points in this particular song, her voice would completely diminsh. But, that doesn't at all ruin the song. Her voice still sounds great on it. That's all that she should consider really working on a bit more in my opinion. Point blank: BUY THIS CD ! ! !

Seeing that there have only been 4 females in music history (Lauryn Hill, the 1st female accomplish the feat in 1999; Alicia Keys in 2002; Norah Jones in 2003; and BeyoncÃ© in 2004) to win 5 Grammy Awards in one year (the most ever for a female artist in one year), Fantasia's got to be next in line. We'll just have to wait and see.

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