The creative partnership of Amerie and Rich Harrison gave them both their earliest and biggest success, including a great first album and one of the best singles of the decade, "1 Thing." But that's not why it's odd that they haven't worked together at all in almost five years. It's odd because they both keep making similar music, Rich with other female R&B singers and Amerie with funky breakbeat-driven production by other producers, and at this point it's almost creepy, like a couple that breaks up and then dates people that look exactly like each other. In a way, though, Amerie's commitment to that particular aesthetic is refreshing; so often singers seem to bend their sound to whoever they're working with or whatever trend is hot, but she clearly loves that one sound that she's doggedly pursued for the majority of her 4 albums, when she could've started making crunk & B or AutoTune or Swizz Beatz-y records a long time ago.

Amerie's commitment to her sound may be admirable, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily enjoyable. Her new album In Love & War continues the diminishing returns of her post-Richcraft career, which means it's not as good as 2007's Because I Love It, which wasn't even released in the U.S. (note the "Took a little time out, took a vacation, but boys I'm back" intro on "Heard Em All," bravely pretending she was just chilling the last few years and not trying to get another hit all along). And worse than the creative dead end she's in, she's already starting to lose a little of her greatest gift, the joyous expressive chirp of her voice. She's not even 30 yet, but on "Tell Me You Love Me" and "Higher" you can hear a hoarseness creeping into her voice that was never there before. If it's a natural change of age, it'll only get worse from here, and if it's a deliberate affectation, she should either stop it or learn how to really work it, because it just doesn't sound good on those songs.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 9:49 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.