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Fantasia in control on powerful album

Album cover for Fantasia's "The Definition of …"
Album cover for Fantasia's "The Definition of …"

B Fantasia

The Definition of ...

RCA

photo

Album cover for Nick Fradiani's Hurricane

Fantasia Barrino appears to have released her own version of Janet Jackson's Control. There's a strong theme of empowerment per areas in which she has famously struggled in real life ... romantic/sexual, financial, behavioral. And she brings this empowerment in on the wings of various musical genres -- even a little bit country.

The work sounds overprocessed, as commercial music is wont to be these days, and it's hard to shake the feeling that Fantasia's magnificently raspy soprano far outshines the material. But smooth harmonies and skillful arrangements here and there give the project pizazz.

The album begins with "Crazy," a fast-paced ditty with a heavy rock/jazz vibe; it depicts a mysterious rebel who tells a suitor that he has to be crazy to be in love with her. It gets down to the romantic nitty gritty with "Sleeping With the One I Love," an R. Kelly-written/produced number released as a single. The song (whose protagonist opts to cheat because the one she's with isn't doing it for her) has gotten some buzz due to its resemblance to James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World"; Fantasia's raw, passionate vocals and a video featuring herself as multiple inmates and a hot young prison guard who, well, gets involved with 'em.

Emotional sunshine comes with "When I Met You," a movie soundtrack-worthy cut that expresses not only an appreciation for a current partner, but thankfulness to the lousy ex-partner who enabled said appreciation. The jazzy, inspirational "Stay Up" has Stacy Barthe's smooth, silky alto woven into a tune that intrigues with different levels of reverb.

Hot tracks: "Sleeping With the One I Love," "When I Met You"

-- HELAINE R. WILLIAMS

C Nick Fradiani

Hurricane

Big Machine

Nick Fradiani won season 14 of American Idol in 2015 more with his likable personality and impressive work ethic than with his voice. Like several winners from Idol and The Voice, Fradiani needs the infrastructure of a network TV show to help sell the songs from his debut album because his voice just isn't distinctive enough to get it done on its own.

Though Fradiani smartly took his time creating his debut, co-writing all of the songs except for his coronation song "Beautiful Life," Hurricane suffers from a bit of multiple personality disorder.

The most likable version of Fradiani comes on the piano-driven "If I Didn't Know You," co-written with Matchbox Twenty's Paul Doucette. It has a bit of the blues and a bit of Elton John from the '70s; Fradiani's voice is at its most personable, similar to Train's Pat Monahan and Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas, only with more vulnerability. That's where he sounds the most artistic, along with the lovely title track he co-wrote with Jason Mraz.

So why does Fradiani spend most of Hurricane trying to match Justin Bieber or Nick Jonas? He probably would have made more money offering "Every Day" and "Get You Home" to Bieber and "In the Long Run" to Jonas. And hand "Nothing to Lose" to Andy Grammer while we're doling out these well-crafted, slightly anonymous songs out to the singer who can carry them farthest.

Hot tracks: "If I Didn't Know You," "Hurricane"

-- GLENN GAMBOA,

Newsday (TNS)

C Haley Bonar

Impossible Dream

Thirty Tigers

Haley Bonar's songs are personal and universal, stories with an indie film ambience detailed enough to fill a larger screen.

Born in Canada, the St. Paul, Minn., resident, 33, echoes her previous album, 2014's Last War, offering gliding power-pop that's much more in-your-ear than in-your-face.

The cinematic textures are enhanced by her voice awash in reverb and the echoing layers of instruments, all at the service of vignettes whose anguish and uncertainty are far from conquered.

"Hometown goes wherever you go," she sings on "Hometown," followed by "Your Mom Is Right" and "Kismet Kill," with the wistful line of "I was impossible when I was beautiful."

With 10 songs in 32 minutes, Bonar's album is as short as it is affecting. "It's all on credit anyway, until we're out of things to say," Bonar says on the closer "Blue Diamonds Fall." She deserves to be allowed to run up as large a tab as she needs.

Hot tracks: "Blue Diamonds Fall," "Hometown," "Your Mom Is Right"

-- PABLO GORONDI,

The Associated Press

Style on 08/16/2016

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