Ever since I first heard Keyshia Cole sing, I’ve been having great hopes for her as a future queen of rnb. While there is lots of others artists more technically skilled, there’s something in her voice that I’ve always loved. You might call it vulnerability, emotion or just presence, but when Keyshia sings, I feel her words.

While her first album had a handful of great songs, the second one just wasn’t up to par with what I expected from her. It felt like most of the material on the album was meant for someone else. Somehow I hoped for Keyshia Cole to get back on that same path she was on with her debut album and try to move on from there.

A Different Me starts off with ‘Make Me Over’, a bigband-ish type of song, produced by no other than Polow da Don, one of my favourite producers. Let’s just say that I don’t think that Big Band Jazz is the right way to go for either Keyshia or Polow. Still after a few listens I can’t stand the song.

But luckily, things are getting better as Keyshia Cole goes back to what she does best, soulful ballads. ‘Trust’ was already a good song when it was added as a bonus track on Just Like Me, but the song gets an extra dimension with Monica singing the second verse. ‘You Complete Me’, ‘Oh Oh Yeah Yeah’ and ‘No Other’ are all the type of songs that Keyshia Cole should continue to do. And then I still didn’t mention the two best moments of this album, the Trackmasters-produced ‘Where This Love Could End Up’ and the Tank-penned ‘Thought You Should Know’. 

Overall, this might be Keyshia’s most solid album yet, though there are no songs that top the best songs from The Way It Is. But then again the album is still growing on me.

Keyshia Cole - Thought You Should Know (written & produced by Tank & Ron Fair)

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Keyshia Cole - Where This Love Could End Up (prod. by Trackmasters)

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