COURTESY PHOTO
Oh Mya!
Marie Harrison is a better
dancer than a singer, but her
new album is worthy
Will the third time be the charm for Marie Harrison? In her guise as urban R&B entertainer Mya (and that's pronounced my-ah), Harrison has tried to make herself into a double threat as an accomplished dancer and singer.
Well, as a dancer, she's pretty much untouchable. The 23-year-old Washington, D.C., native first made her name with the New York-based Dance Theater of Harlem, along with Savion Glover, who became the choreographer behind the Broadway hit "Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk." Mya's reported passion for improvisation made her a favorite of Glover's, who had her perform solo at the Kennedy Center.
"Moodring"
Mya
A&M/Interscope
Mya recently won accolades for her supporting role of the vixen Mona in Rob Marshall's popular film adaptation of the musical "Chicago." (Her screen debut was a small role in the 1999 movie "In Too Deep," starring Omar Epps and LL Cool J.)
Before the "Chicago" role, Mya was part of the quartet of Lil' Kim, Pink and Christina Aguilera, whose sexy remake of "Lady Marmalade" was a big hit from the "Moulin Rouge" soundtrack.
Thankfully, there are few remakes on Mya's latest album, "Moodring," her follow-up to 2000's "Fear of Flying." Her take on Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" is a curiosity at best, and the bonus track is the song she sang and appeared in as part of one of Coca-Cola's more recent TV campaigns, "Real Compared to What." And compared with the original soulful and socially sardonic 1969 hit by Les McCann and Eddie Harris, both Mya and rapper Common give it a worthy contemporary spin -- although the song's message is now co-opted since it's now associated with the soft drink. Oh well ...
Even though Mya is serious about the singing portion of her career, I admit that if she wasn't such the hottie, I don't think she would be getting the marketing push as she's getting for "Moodring." Her saving grace is that she's collaborated with some of the hotter names in the genre in her two previous albums, including Babyface, Wyclef Jean, Swizz Beatz and Missy Elliott.
Elliott's back to lend her songwriting and production skills to a couple of songs. The album's first single, "My Love is Like ... Wo," is a pretty standard urban R&B song, considering her earlier, groundbreaking work. But the woman's-got-to-get-some-respect rump shaker "Step" is filled with those well-defined beats and thumps that we've come to expect from Ms. Elliott.
And songs like this play to Mya's strengths, by laying her relatively small and thin singing voice over some authoritative grooves.
"Why You Gotta Look So Good?" (with production from Rockwilder) is a synth-driven and candid appraisal of good love gone bad (but, damn!, his butt is so fine -- a neat bit of objectifying role reversal). The label should also consider as follow-up singles either "Things Come and Go" (good chorus hook, catchy mutated Memphis beat and a cameo by dancehall rapper Sean Paul); "Whatever Bitch," a catty, good-humored, techno-inspired song written and co-produced by Mya and Damon Elliott; or "Take a Picture," a lighthearted and tuneful joint co-written by Elliott and Pink.
The slow jams, however, are hit and miss. Her two songs with masters Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, "Anatomy 10n1" and "Late," unfortunately show how her limited range squelches the emotional punch those songs need to put them over the top. But, to be fair, when she lowers her range just a bit and puts the diva mask aside, songs like "You" and "Taste This" offer more solid and effective fare from this ambitious entertainer.
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