In all honesty, we were fully prepared not to like Mutya’s debut album for a few reasons:
- Top ten UK single ‘Real Girl’ doesn’t excite us that much.
- Mutya duets with Amy Winehouse.
- The promo sampler we received didn’t excite.
- We were expecting the album to be on the R&B tip. Not a good thing.
However upon listening to the full, finished and polished album last night, it’s not that bad. It will probably get 4 or 5 plays out of us before it goes into random playlist shuffle, but hey most albums don’t get that honor.
Out of all the Sugababes, we’ve always had a special place for Mutya. Being of mixed-race background like ourselves, we would sometimes picture ourselves as the Mutya of the bunch whenever we went to a Sugababes show. Hell, once we even got upset when went to a Sugababes show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire and Mutya cut out of the show early cuz her throat hurt. A Sugababes show just isn’t the same when Keisha and Heidi do it without Mutya. We digress – back to the album…
However, knowing that electro is our hot hot sex music right now, Mutya has collaborated with Groove Armada to produce one of the best summer anthems to come along in a great awhile in ‘Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control)’. This song alone will have everyone singing and dancing in the streets – especially at summer festivals and certain parades that may be coming up. A great track to be featured on this album.
‘Strung Out’ is a stomper that showcases Miss Mutya’s vocal abilities very well. ‘It’s Not Easy’ is a great electro-tinged track where Mutya proclaims “it’s not easy being right all the time”… Lord we know that is true.
Mutya’s collaboration with George Michael on ‘This Is Not Real Love’ has always been amazing to us and we are glad she included on the album. We’ve always thought the meshing of their two voices was a magical combination. The rest of the tracks are ok. Kinda just mediocre pop – but nothing that should stop you from giving this album a whirl if you are of the pop persuasion. Well – ‘B-Boy Baby’ featuring Amy Winehouse is kinda downright silly. Just forgive that track and move on.
All in all – It’s something kinda ehhhh. A handful of good tracks/a handful of so-so tracks. The final track ‘My Song’ is very good. It’s kinda like Mutya’s version of ‘Bad Day’ and since it’s been raining this entire weekend, it was a welcome little number. ‘Real Girl’ the album is a relaxed effort from a relaxed sort of gal – just what we wanted and expected from Mutya Buena.