Chrisette Michele
Epiphany
Release Date: May 5, 2009
Genre(s): R&B, Soul
Record label: Def Jam
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Album Review: Epiphany by Chrisette Michele
Fairly Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Chrisette Michele is one of those artists who suffers from the bifurcated way black music is marketed and sold—and consumed. She’s too good a singer to be a pop star. And too young and hip hop-inspired to be relegated to the neo-soul, adult contemporary section of the record store. (Is there even an AC section on Itunes?) Or so we are told.
Based on rating 6/10
Chrisette Michele's very good debut, I Am, won a couple Grammys but did not did not have corresponding commercial success. None of its three singles reached the Top 20 of the R&B/Hip-Hop chart. The album itself barely dented the Top 30 of the Billboard 200. She co-wrote each one of its songs and passed on the opportunity to record "Irreplaceable," later taken on by Beyoncé and made into one of 2006's biggest singles.
Based on rating C
”I am not your porcelain doll,” Michele tells a soon-to-be ex in one of the many breakup songs included on her sophomore disc. Judging by the fiery vocal performances found throughout the disc, you had better believe her; this neo-soul siren is all flesh and blood. Yet while it makes a virtue of Michele’s strong-female fortitude, Epiphany all too rarely balances that heat with hooks — surprising, given the participation of Ne-Yo, R&B’s premier melody man.
Opinion: Mediocre
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