Kelis

It wasn't Kelis' fault her strong and soulful debut missed the neosoul train by a year -- the single "Caught Out There" was tagged for easy reference to the conventional rock-chick yowlings of Alanis Morissette. But Kelis, a genetic jackpot, with a father who was both a minister and a musician, demonstrated a silky, insinuating voice and a precocious ease in a variety of genres on Kaleidoscope.

A curiosity upon its release, this intelligently upside-down R&B album seems almost revelatory. Hip-hop breaks intensify the confidence Kelis exudes on "Good Stuff," as the tune ambles smokily over a slow-thumping bass. She does her own rapping on the sinuous "Mafia," with its serpentine Middle Eastern vocal melody grounded in hard-edged funk. "Caught Out There" subverted traditional song form, burying its title in a lilting throwaway phrase at the end of the verses, and got Kelis attention with her screaming chorus: "I hate . . . you so . . . much right now!" Even her less interesting songs glow thanks to the Neptunes' funky syncopations.

Kelis loses her way on the aptly titled Wanderland. The beats that brought Kaleidoscope to life are gone, and only Kelis' hippieish and overly self-aware songwriting remains. Still, there's a nice ambiguity on "Popular Thug" (with rapping by Pusha T of Clipse), which includes a bizarre calliope-like synth part and lyrics about the singer's self-delusion over the source of her boyfriend's money. She dabbles in rock, with miserable results in "Perfect Day" and much better ones in "Easy Come, Easy Go," which boasts Korn's Fieldy on bass but could slip unnoticed onto a J.Lo album. Still, the songwriting can be juvenile, and she tries in vain to recapture the magic of "Caught Out There" with the spacy, sassy "Get Even." Tasty, her third album, is her best work -- lighter and more cohesive than Wanderland, more focused and mature than Kaleidoscope. Take away the Dallas Austin–produced tracks ("Trick Me" and "Keep It Down"), two Neptunes rock attempts, and the superfreaky, undeniable "Milkshake," and you have a solid R&B album, one that's thickly speckled with hip-hop influences and nods to early Prince and '80s Latin freestyle music. (ERNEST HARDY/ARION BERGER)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide