Mya

Mya's suburban sexiness, alternately squeaky-clean and ready to get her freak on, made for a fresh, accessible R&B stardom. She seemed like the diva next door, the gal from your chem class who happened to sing and dance her way right onto the radio. Which might be why her divahood seems fleeting despite the fact that she's three albums into her career.

Mya slinks outta the speakers like a virgin touched for the very first time. The beats are the sort of post-Timbaland blip-bumps that dominated pop radio in the late '90s, but Mya's thin voice propels flirtations like "Movin' On," "Keep on Lovin' Me," and the brilliantly titled "If You Died I Wouldn't Cry Cause You Never Loved Me Anyway." The highlight was the amazingly dirty-sounding "It's All About Me." Sisqó, even at his drag-on moanin'-est, can barely keep up; by the end of this five minutes of throbbing foreplay, he sounds as on the edge of exhaustion as we feel. A perfect example of cold-shower R&B, and a smashing opening move.

Mya buried a couple of excellent songs on soundtracks to fairly worthless films. "Ghetto Supastar," from Bulworth, her hook-singin' collaboration with former Fugee Pras and Wu-Tang surrealist ODB, was the only thing about the movie that the mass market dug. "Take Me There" was snap-crackle-pop from The RugRats Movie, of all things.

But Fear of Flying didn't capitalize on her charms. That inner-sleeve photo of Mya looking mighty Mariahesque was not a good sign; the music sounds blandly generic. Perhaps sensing something was amiss, Fear of Flying was withdrawn in 2000, and two dishwater-dull ballads, "For the First Time" and "No Tears on My Pillow," were replaced with "Again and Again" and the terrific "Free," a spitfire ode to being "single, sexy, and free," written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. (The two really should get an award for not having lost a step since they were doing this sort of thing for Janet Jackson in the mid-'80s.)

Mya recovered from the appallingly popular 2001 single "Lady Marmalade" -- a misguided ménage between Mya, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, and Missy Elliott -- with the fine Moodring, her most even album yet, which hit the charts with the excellently titled Elliott production "My Love Is Like . . . Wo." (JOE GROSS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide