Album Review: Jennifer Hudson

After getting the early boot in season 3 of 'America Idol', Jennifer Hudson went into seclusion, clawing her way back to the top with her Academy Award winning role in 'Dreamgirls' and landing a contract with the legendary Clive Davis, who launched the successful careers of Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, and recently Leona Lewis. After dabbling in film ('Dreamgirls', 'Sex in the City: The Movie', 'The Secret Life of Bees', and 'Winged Creatures'), the 27 year old singer is finally set to release her longly awaited self titled debut album on September 30th.

The Ne-Yo written 'Spotlight' starts the set out on a high note, as Jennifer proclaims:

"Well, I don't like living under your spotlight

Just because you think I might find somebody worthy

Well, I don't like living under your spotlight

Baby if you treat me right, you won't have to worry"

A moderately safe introduction to say the least, but the piano driven melody, along with the lyrics, work hard to grab your attention and eventually comes out a winner. 'If This is Love', is a well written clip that engages you, complete with nice melodies and piano riffs, and Jennifer beautifully sings each word.

The Timbaland and Jim Beanz produced 'Pocketbook', is definitely entertaining, but also a little humorous at the same time as she playfully flirts by singing "don't make me hit you with my pocketbook". The track does take an attempt at trying to make her music relevant and you have to respect her for that, people will either love or hate the track, I'm leaning more towards the first, and the seriously underrated Ludacris helps by adding some flare to the track.

The Robin Thicke written and produced, 'Giving Myself', is an impressive, heartfelt, compelling number sung by a woman who evokes all the emotion of being truly in love. 'We Gon Fight', has an gospel influenced edge that is reminisce to that R. Kelly often incorporates into his albums, and 'Invisible' is a nice piano built up midtempo.

Other notable tracks include, the Polow Da Don assisted 'My Heart', the powerful 'You Pull Me Through', and Ne-Yo's second contribution 'Can't Stop the Rain'.

The album isn't without flaws, as the T-Pain assisted duet, featuring his tiresome vocoded vocals, would have actually been an overly solid track had it been sung with a male singer that can actually sing, but his fragile voice against her beyond powerful voice, proved to be the wrong potion. 'I'm His Only Woman', a duet with Fantasia, features an overly sung scream match between the former two competitors, that's just extremely too much on the ears. The overly played out 'And I Am Telling You', could have also been left on the movie's soundtrack, where it belong.

Overall, the album is beyond solid, not by far something you could listen to everyday, being that its a little too ballad heavy and depressing. Jennifer also give you the feeling that she is still trying to prove she can sing, by all the unnecessary screaming battles she puts you through.

Still the set manages to highlight her soulful styled voice, which is transcendent and a true throwback to an era where singers could actually SING.

3.5 out of 5