A recent release reviewed

FAITH EVANS
The First Lady EMI
***

The ex-Mrs Biggie Smalls has faced down many challenges in her decade-long recording career, not least the attempts by various chancers (Puff Daddy, most famously) to mould her into something she clearly never wanted to be. Here, free from such machinations, she's keen to do what appears to be her own thing, and it's a funky get-up-get-down take on hip-hop and r 'n' b's respective tipping points that produces some surprisingly gutsy, poppy hollers. Case in point is Goin' Out Tonight, with Pharrell and Pusha T providing a few additional markers for her vocal skipping. Again has plenty of thumps and riffs, but it also has some personal demons to counter, Evans telling her side of the story about a stint in rehab last year. What's probably most impressive about The First Lady is just how confident Evans sounds, proof that you can't keep a good woman down. www.faithevansonline.com

Jim Carroll