Living Out Loud with Darian

Alright kids! I don't usually do music reviews because much of what the music industry throws at us is garbage and if you're not Janet then I'm usually not impressed. I've played Rhianna's "Umbrella" and T-Pain's" Buy You A Drank" so many times over the past couple of months that I'm actually finally sick of them and I'm ready to move on.

My new music addictions are Ms. Kelly by Kelly Rowland, Between Friends by Tamia, and The Daily News by Donnie, let's start with Kelly first.

After waiting for a year for this album to be released it's finally here and it's on heavy rotation on my iPod. I have to say I'm in love with this album and the beautiful Kelly Rowland. I hate to compare her album to Beyonce's because everyone is doing that, but it's not Dangerously in Love or B'day( and thank God it's not B'day!) but it's still a slammin album! Here are my favorite tracks in order:

1) Love (co-written by Solange? and she sings her face off!!!)
2)Like This(duet with Eve...fire!)
3)Work (hot club track with a latin feel)
4)Ghetto(duet with Snoop Dogg...potential next single)
5)Still in Love with my Ex (you get all the T on her breakup)
6)All of the other tracks

Now let's talk about the underdog, the forgotten one, the talented Tamia. It's a damn shame her album was released late last year and I don't remember hearing any buzz about it at all. I actually just discovered the album a couple of weeks ago when a friend introduced it to me. Tamia has such a beautiful voice and the material on this album is top notch. This is an album you can play straight through. Rodney Jerkins is a producer on this project and provides his usual hot beats that actually compliment Tamia's voice rather than overpower it. My favorite tracks:

1) EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM...NO LIE!!!!!!

But "Too Grown For That" and "ME" are constantly on repeat on my iPod. People are sleeping on this album and thy need to wake up and get into Tamia. No, she doesn't give you a fierce dance number but the girl has some real chops.

Now on to Donnie. The man is cute, vocally gifted, and his lyrical content is socially and politically infused. And did I forget to mention he's an openly gay entertainer? Even if his music wasn't hot I'd probably buy his album just to support him for having the courage to be honest in an industry filled with closet cases. But this album is neo-soul at it's best. The sad thing is that this isn't Donnie's first album. He released The Colored Section a few years ago and it wasn't on my radar. But now that we've met I can't live without him. My favorite tracks are:

1) If I Were You (such a feel good song)
2)911 Emergency (the man says the word homophobia in a song...wow)
3) All of the other tracks...seriously



Finally, I would be listening to Mya if she ever decided to release her new album "Liberation" that's been pushed back at least ten times! Damn is Beyonce the only singer that gets to release an album on time nowadays? Mya worked me over in 2003 with Moodring so can I please get Liberation?