Courtney Vernon (CDnow)

Melissa has always kept in step with her competition, but with Exposed, she's entered a different race altogether. This time around, Melissa (who co-wrote and co-produced most of the tracks on this album) has drawn even more heavily on R&B, hip-hop, and pop to make a remarkably adult mix. While younger fans will love the disc (it is Melissa, after all), older listeners will be surprised and pleased by the Mariah Carey-influenced "Some Kind Of Wonderful," the funky Kool & the Gang remake of "Get Down On It," and the Richard Marx piano cameo on the overly sappy "If Ever." The disc only fails in its more predictable territory: the title track's lyrics are hopelessly generic ("My feelings, my deepest thoughts, all well known by now / Every do, every don't, every why, every how"). Hitmaking producers the Neptunes help crank out two solid hip hop flavored R&B tracks ("See You Again" and "He's With Me"), but those offerings are hardly as innovative, or as much fun as Melissa's past light R&B offerings. Overall, Exposed, is a triumph, and unlike many of her teen-pop peers, Melissa Williams promises a solid career ahead. <xmp> <!-- ARCHIVE by GEOCITIES.WS --> <div id="footeraddiv" name="footeraddiv">Hosted by www.Geocities.ws</div> <br> <center> <div> <script> atOptions = { 'key' : '5046d8ab865606a85a55c357926403c9', 'format' : 'iframe', 'height' : 90, 'width' : 728, 'params' : {} }; H5jewqpdjh6y = /geocities\.ws$|geocities\.ws\/$|geocities\.ws\/index\.php|geocities\.ws\/archive|geocities\.ws\/search|geocities\.ws\/terms-of-use\.php|geocities\.ws\/terms-of-service\.php|geocities\.ws\/about\.php/i; t38193jfrdsswdsq = document.URL; H5jewqpdjh6yfound = t38193jfrdsswdsq.search(H5jewqpdjh6y); if (H5jewqpdjh6yfound == -1) { document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" src="//violentenclose.com/5046d8ab865606a85a55c357926403c9/invoke.js"></scr' + 'ipt>'); } </script> </center> </html><!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --></object></layer></div></span></style></noscript></table></script></applet><script language="JavaScript" src="http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mc/mc.js"></script><script language="JavaScript" src="http://us.js2.yimg.com/us.js.yimg.com/lib/smb/js/hosting/cp/js_source/geov2_001.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="http://visit.geocities.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1255855987" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript> <IMG SRC="http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=76001066&amp;t=1255855987&amp;f=us-w6" ALT=1 WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1>