All of Me
On her third record, Estelle's more focused on hitmaking than crafting a cohesive album statement.
In an era when female pop singers tend to don cartoonish outfits, personae, and vocal styles, sometimes even taking on second personalities to cram in all the manufactured eccentricity, British rapper-singer Estelle remains refreshingly affectless. The short, unobtrusive skits that dot her third album All Of Me…
Rihanna's success might give some people pause at the idea that any of those single-named R&B hitstresses could attain the career longevity that Amerie and Ciara could not. But it took Rihanna an absurd amount of time to achieve a household name—namely, six albums in seven years, which despite plenty of hits (especially "We Found Love," "Umbrella," "SOS" and the underrated "Disturbia") likely took a backseat to her unfortunate history of abuse at her Grammy-winning ex's hands to get there. Amerie, Ciara and Estelle barely have six albums between them.
"American Boy" put Estelle in the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100, but none of the three subsequent singles from Shine touched that chart.
Estelle seems split between her loyalties to London and New York on her new album, writes <strong>Caroline Sullivan</strong>
Estelle - All of Me review: Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean at the turn of the millennium.