J-Lo's eighth studio album (how did that happen?) has received some pretty damning reviews so far (see here and here). I'm no J-Lo fan, but I couldn't disagree more. In my opinion, A.K.A. is perhaps the actress-dancer-singer's (in that order) most versatile and polished offering since her breakout over a decade ago.
J-Lo's always had the goods for pop superstardom. Good dancer. Good body. Workable voice. But apart from in the early 2000s, her on-paper potential hasn't translated to real-world quality. Her material has consistently been subpar, her delivery strained, and her personality off-putting. This album doesn't solve the personality problem, but it does contain a surprising number of legitimate pop hits, starting with the singles "I Luh Ya Papi" and "First Love," and continuing through the likely future smashes "Never Satisfied" and "Booty." Then there's the slightly cheesy but undeniably beautiful Spanish power ballad "Let it Be Me," on which J-Lo does her best impression of Celine Dion vocals (and, surprisingly, sounds pretty good).
As other critics have pointed out, there is a degree of lyric and thematic inconsistency within the album, but the same could be said of most pop albums in the iTunes age, and that's J-Lo in general -- the girl's an actress, and consistent with her ever changing celebrity persona, she'll play whatever part she feels like at any given moment. That's fine with me -- harsh as it may sound, I suspect "honesty" from J-Lo is probably not something that is going to advance her career or music very much. Maybe we'll get a better sense of who J-Lo really is in future work. For now, I'm fine with this.
Rating: ★★★★ (B+)
J-Lo's always had the goods for pop superstardom. Good dancer. Good body. Workable voice. But apart from in the early 2000s, her on-paper potential hasn't translated to real-world quality. Her material has consistently been subpar, her delivery strained, and her personality off-putting. This album doesn't solve the personality problem, but it does contain a surprising number of legitimate pop hits, starting with the singles "I Luh Ya Papi" and "First Love," and continuing through the likely future smashes "Never Satisfied" and "Booty." Then there's the slightly cheesy but undeniably beautiful Spanish power ballad "Let it Be Me," on which J-Lo does her best impression of Celine Dion vocals (and, surprisingly, sounds pretty good).
As other critics have pointed out, there is a degree of lyric and thematic inconsistency within the album, but the same could be said of most pop albums in the iTunes age, and that's J-Lo in general -- the girl's an actress, and consistent with her ever changing celebrity persona, she'll play whatever part she feels like at any given moment. That's fine with me -- harsh as it may sound, I suspect "honesty" from J-Lo is probably not something that is going to advance her career or music very much. Maybe we'll get a better sense of who J-Lo really is in future work. For now, I'm fine with this.
Rating: ★★★★ (B+)
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