Keyshia Cole – Point Of No Return

It’s undoubtedly the burden of the R&B artist to pinpoint the less than conspicuous center of creating music with raw emotion, breathtaking vocals, and melodies that transform your quintessential “urban” individual’s favorite saying into a catchphrase. Keyshia accomplishes each of these points, but is unable to gel them on a single track. While simply making six studio albums is an achievement, she misses the mark here, opting to muddle her marked vocal range with the chops and stabs of rap duets.

The unrestrained lyrical thrashing is an honest recalling encounters with a lost love captured in a heightened emotional state. It’s as if Keyshia records her music immediately as incidents in her life occurs. She runs through the gamut of emotions and themes, recording a moderately out-of-place club track like “Rick James” but circling back to a gospel-intense track called “Remember (Pt. 2)”, the sequel to 2007s “I Remember”. The most apparent emotion is full-blown anger, but it is perhaps the most alluring aspect of the album. You will find yourself stunned mid-song on “Do That For (B.A.B.)” where Keyshia takes the opportunity to take-to-task the male species for their stereotypically deviancy.

A look at the production credits will show this generation’s heavy-hitters DJ Mustard, Amadeus, Mike Will Made It and Stargate. They provided their mastery of synths, 808’s and arpeggios, creating mostly mid to up-tempo songs that attracted rappers like Juicy J, 2 Chainz, and Future. The result was Keyshia diminishing her vocal ability to fit the timing and melodic restraints, a common practice amongst R&B artists today. A more befitting use of her vocal aptitude was on the Jodeci inspired track “On Demand” that features a surprisingly fitting integration of August Alsinas’ distinguished hooks – something sure to cater to the next generation of R&B enthusiasts. On an album laden with hard-hitting production embellished by party rappers, Keyshia managed to reserve a spot for a duet, “Party Ain’t A Party” featuring neophyte singer Gavyn Rhone. The sensual production seems more at home and takes a backseat to the inspired harmonies and tasteful utilization of ad libs.

The sixth studio album from the near 10-year music veteran exposes a new layer in emotional depth and risk-taking, showcasing lyrical vehemence and venturing into the visual album territory where only Beyonce´ has found success. Keyshia triumphantly reveals underlying hostility in true R&B diva fashion a la Mary J. Blige and Jazmine Sullivan, airs out dirty laundry unabashed, but simultaneously lacks an overall goal. It speaks to her sheer ability to convey the gamut of human emotion that she would still shine here with so much of her voice purposely woven around the beats and rhymes, but by far her greatest ability is the hounding falsetto of albums past.