a grab bag of what works in pop music - Like many American women my age, I have a passion for the phenomenon that was Dirty Dancing. The style, the music and, of course, the dancing were all extremely influential on me and my fellow Catholic school girlfriends. We danced in the aisles of the movie theatre and recited the dialogue at countless slumber parties.One sunny day this spring I was driving along and heard a pop-style R&B version of Patrick Swayze s She s Like The Wind blasting through my speakers! I rolled the window down and reminisced about summers of my youth. The cover, by Lumidee, who you may remember from last year s summer jam Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh), is performed alongside Tony Sunshine. They both do a great job channeling the spirit of Johnny and Baby, and, while it includes several new rap sections, it s impossible to not sing along. I admit that I struggled for a minute with my instinct to love the song, thinking most young people who hear this won t even know that it s a cover. Realizing this way of thinking made me sound like an old timer, I went on to spread the word about this perfect summer jam.Because I was so sold on the first single, I was excited to hear the entire album, but found it empty. Let s be real, it doesn t speak highly of a studio album when the best song on it is a cover. This is the epitome of what can be bad about commercial radio. It sounds like the producers randomly reached into a grab bag of what works in pop music: hot young woman, guest stars like Snoop Dogg and Shaggy, dependable, safe dance beats and overly produced and altered vocals. It has no artistic integrity and feels soulless, ironic for an R&B album. In the song, In It For The Money, she goes on about how her main motivation is - yep, you guessed it! - Money. In the spirit of valuing your own dollars, take yours and invest them in real, original talent like Lil Mama.
Unexpected indeed. - I didn t expect to hear from this one again after her short lived career and hit single ruled the airwaves and clubs for a good minute years back. But I must say I am glad she came back. This is a good mature and newer Lumidee...
Not so unexpected - Lumidee came out back in 2003 with a song called Never Leave You. Although she really couldn t sing, the song became a hit anyway, possibly due to the fact that all songs featuring that beat were getting enormous airplay (Sean Paul s Get Busy, Wayne Wonder s No Letting Go). After her follow-up single Crashin a Party went absolutely nowhere, she disappeared. But now she re-emerges with Unexpected.Lumidee s singing is a tad better, but she still isn t quite there. But much of the time she RAPS on here, and she s not that great at THAT either. Actually, she doesn t sound terrible, but, well, she doesn t sound any different from any other female MC. This is especially shown on the disposable So Cool...Hollywood.The only song that really stands out to me is Stuck On You (except for in the chorus where she says: It s true/I can t get past it too, did we not get As in English class?). Most of the rest of the songs are forgettable, like Passin Thru, He Told Me and Caught Up, and Cute Boy is a song I wish I COULD forget. Guest rappers also fail to add life to the songs, like N.O.R.E. (You Got Me), Snoop Dogg (In It For the Money), and Jim Jones (I m Up). There are also some badly done clubbish makeovers to classic songs, like Roberta Flack s Feel Like Makin Love and Patrick Swayze s She s Like the Wind (featuring Shaggy and Tony Sunshine, respectively).Speaking of that, there is an obligatory end-of-album Spanglish-version-of-the-first-single on here. I can t really call this sophomore album from Lumidee unexpected because that would suggest that I was anticipating it to be good. Yeah, it s better than Almost Famous, but that really ain t saying much.Anthony Rupert
I like this album - I found this album while searching related artists, and I really like this album. It has catchy beats, songs I want to keep playing on repeat, and the Spanglish version of She s like the Wind is better than the English, I beleive. I don t know why people are speaking so mean about her and her talents. Everyone has a right to their own opinion, but if you don t like it, you don t have to say it s the worst thing ever. Just simply say you don t like it. But I definitely like Lumidee.
As expected - This former one-hit wonder from Connecticut can now amend and extend her resume by one more hit with the first single from her second album. The single She s Like the Wind was originally performed by Patrick Swayze, and was also covered by David The Hoff Hasselhoff, but this version coverts a part of the song to rap and features vocals by Tony Sunshine.Another song that I found interesting was the duet with Shaggy, covering the Roberta Flack hit Feel Like Making Love, but with a reggae spin. Lumidee s vocals match well with Shaggy on this one, which I actually prefer to the first single. A good dance track is Crazy featuring Pitbull, and you might also like The Whistle Song featuring Wyclef Jean. Other fairly good tracks are Cute Boy and Did You Imagine.This album is okay, largely due to the guest artistes, but not exactly outstanding, which is precisely what we expected. Rated: 3.5 starsAmanda Richards, May 5, 2007