Here I Am [CD]

As a fan of Kelly Rowland I've got her two first albums and while I have enjooyed them both I have to say that Here I Am is her best album to date. OK, so some of the songs on the album are few years old, such as When Love Takes Over and Commander but that aside it's still a great album with lots of catchy songs.

With 17 songs on the CD I think it's value for money and there's only four songs on it that I'm not keen on. I think Kelly shoudl probably stick to the more up tempo songs as I think that's where her strengths lie. As for the remix of Motivation, I don't think this adds much to the album.

My favourite songs on the album are:
I'm Dat Chick
Work It Man
Motivation
Lay It On Me
Feelin Me Right Now
Turn It Up
Commander
Down For Whatever
When Love Takes Over
What A Feeling
Forever and A Day

Kelly is a great singer, it's just a shame she's not as successful as her bandmate Beyonce as she is just as talented. I have Beyonce latest album and I have to say that Kelly's is far better.

I've had this album pretty much on repeat since I bought it and I'm still not bored of it. With her judging role on the X factor I hope Kelly becomes even more successful in the UK

This album has been dogged by delays and some very weird management, which has resulted in it not gaining nearly as much success as it should. It's actually a very strong album, but my only complaint is that the UK edition (this version, with the purple cover), is very much an album of two halves, with the first half being mostly R&B and the second half being mostly dance. This detracts from its cohesiveness and also means that, as the UK singles have mostly been dance ones, they're not necessarily representative of the album.

The R&B half of the album (tracks 1-8) has several quite strong midtempo tracks, particularly "Lay It On Me" and "Feelin' Me Right Now". The flagship US single "Motivation" is a bit of a grower - I didn't like it at first, as it's a bit of a slinky ballad without any of the impact of the dance singles, but it's definitely grown on me.

The dance half of the album (tracks 9-17, with a few exceptions) feels like almost a different artist, and is led by last year's David Guetta-produced hit "Commander". Even this half of the album isn't really non-stop dance, as it's interrupted by the ballad "Heaven N Earth" and the midtempo "Rose Colored Glasses" and the Diplo remix of "Motivation", but as these are all perfectly good tracks in their own right I can hardly complain. My main problem with this half is that most of the big dance tracks on it have already been released as singles ("Down For Whatever", "Commander", "When Love Takes Over", "What A Feeling" and "Forever And A Day"), which means that there's barely any new material that continues in this vein. The result is that, based on the UK singles, it's perfectly possible to pick this up expecting more pop-dance music and end up disappointed.

Overall, I'm very happy with Here I Am and it's going to stay on loop in my CD player for a long time to come, but then again I'm a big fan of both R&B and dance music. If you love one genre and hate the other, you might be better off just listening to half the album.

It has been a long wait, but Kelly really delivers here. The album is very consistent and it really is difficult to pick out the highlights. I'm now looking forward to the International Edition for even more treats from Kelly. The fast stuff is really very good and they are promising more of it, but the two main slowies on this album, All Of The Night and Keep It Between Us, do hint at another side to Kelly worth exploring and are also very addictive. This version is worth it for the amazingness of Each Other alone, which makes up for Heaven and Earth, which is somewhat of a letdown, I have to say, as it lacks edge. Please support Kelly, as her talent is often overlooked and she deserves much more success!

Update 09.12.2011
Although I still stand by my original review and think that the full international edition, based on the music alone, is still well worth the 5 stars I gave back then, I really must vent my disappointment at what has turned out to be the final version. It is an insult, not only to us as customers, but also to Kelly herself, that they have simply attached a few hits (or not) from the past few YEARS to fill out the album and then call it a new release. Excellent as these songs are, it is just lazy and nothing other than a grabby move by her managers. I doubt she is that happy about it herself - she must feel as if her record company has no belief in her at all. Admittedly, a new customer gets a really good, long album when they buy the new version, but most people will have bought the earlier verson and will not necessarily bother with this. As a completist and hardcore Kelly fan myself, even I am not jumping on this. Even in 2 years when this cost 1p from some merchant, I'd probably still begrudge the postage, and that is saying something.

The sad thing is that the way that this album has been released might seriously damage, or has already damaged, Kelly's marketability and credibility as an artist, as the old version has been available for months, not even at a scary import price. So everyone has gradually been buying their copy, first the hardcore fans, then the newcomers based on the news of her X factor role, then those who have enjoyed her as an X factor judge. Then comes along the revised copy and is so disappointing that nobody wants to purchase it in addition. Months of sales are staggered, meaning that this album has no means of impacting on the charts and then selling on the strength of that success. It will just ebb away into oblivion. There has even been talk for months of a new album due in early spring, making this release even more of a throwaway move.

WARNING - Compulsory Beyoncé Reference: Kelly really deserves better than this. How is she ever to shrug off the Beyoncé comparisons when her camp is obviously letting her down. I must admit that Down for Whatever's chart placing surprised me (excellent song for an album, but not expressly designed for the charts on its own) and does show that the hype surrounding Kelly could have been used a lot better to make this album sell well, but they seem to have ruined the chances of that from the outset. Now everyone just thinks they are right when they say that Beyoncé can still sell, whereas her DC sister cannot. I feel it is also more of an embarassment for Kelly, as it makes it look as if she is too worthless to even profit from her X factor role like that lucky Cheryl Cole, who managed to churn out many a "hit" on the back of X Factor.

I really hope for the future that they can give Kelly the chance she deserves. She has the talent and this album proves she can have the material, but the marketing strategy is just plain silly.

I yearn to be proved wrong by this album rocking the charts in the coming weeks, as it really deserves to do, but something tells me that won't happen.