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Album reviews Music

Melanie Fiona – The MF Life

Rating: NN


On her debut, The Bridge, Toronto-born singer Melanie Fiona sought to nudge the American R&B charts away from Auto-Tuned simplicity toward unpredictable melody and unbridled emotion. Her follow-up, however, is closer to a traditional multi-producer record featuring a checklist of styles – hip-hop, R&B, retro soul, rock and radio pop – that showcase her technical precision as a singer but reluctance to colour outside the lines.

Fiona’s gleaming clarity works on sobering ballads like the minimal 4am and the maximal Wrong Side Of A Love Song, but less so on the Drake-penned I Been That Girl, a dark, sinewy song with more nuanced, self-reflective lyrics than those on the rest of the album. Her confidence comes off as over-mannered on the more rollicking numbers like Running (featuring Nas) and Watch Me Work. She adds gristle to her husky delivery on soul throwback Bones but plays the song’s morbid metaphorical lines, which liken love to an anatomical journey, a little too straight to make them work.

Top track: 4am

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