After listening to her entire CD Still Standing, I am not surprised at the out pouring of fans around the country who have been trying very hard to get their hands on a copy of Monica’s newest release which some have speculated to be her best to date.
“Still Standing” the album couldn’t ask for a better marketing tool than “Still Standing” the show, but it also succeeds as a stand-alone product – good news for those who haven’t seen the program or couldn’t care less about the human drama behind the music they consume. The disc is a lean 10 tracks, and while the sound is more mature than her 1995 debut “Miss Thang,” as it should be, her mellow style of R&B remains comfortingly intact.
Monica’s Instore CD Signing – Atlanta Despite a handful of great original ballads, including “Love All Over Me” and “One in a Lifetime,” the heavily sampled Missy Elliott productions are the catchiest inclusions. “Everything to Me” borrows so much of Deniece Williams’s “Silly” that it almost feels accurate to call it a remake/rewrite of the original, but it’s still sounds fresh. “If You Were My Man,” another Elliott production, is built on Evelyn “Champagne” King’s “Betcha She Don’t Love You.” And just in case you didn’t know that the song is meant to channel the 1980s, Elliott helpfully screams ” ’80s!” throughout. The rousing title track also serves as Monica’s TV show theme, and, other than that Filet-O-Fish jingle, the Ludacris-assisted song of survival is the catchiest piece of music to hit the tube in some time. Monica’s talent is like a glass of red wine…her singing skills just gets better in time. Her demeanor is so genuine and down to earth and her interactions with her fans are priceless. Congratulations Monica for such an awesome body of work.
