Macy Gray The Trouble With Being Myself (Epic/Sony) Rating: NN
Rating: NN
The song I Try from Macy Gray’s On How Life Is was a fine piece of work, simple and catchy. It may seem unfair to continually subject the woman to comparisons to what was obviously a fluke, but life isn’t fair and there are no tunes near as good on this record. For all the production fussing that went into The Trouble With Being Myself, the result, like The Id before it, is kind of dull. It feels like it should be a 70s funk throwback extravaganza but instead sounds both watered-down and overdone. Gray tries desperately to sound kooky and raw but falls flat, getting lost in the over-slick production. You have the funk or you don’t. No matter how hard Gray tries, it remains elusive.
